A Prayer for Unbelieving Loved Ones
By Amanda Idleman
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” - 1 John 5:14
We all have people in our lives that we love dearly but we know that their hearts are far from the Lord. There are so many reasons why people’s hearts can grow cold toward the Lord. Some of us have trauma that makes accepting God’s love difficult, others of us let pride tell us that the mystery of an unseen God is not an acceptable answer to the big questions life offers, and others are too entrenched in our their sin to see God. Whatever stories we see happening in our unbelieving friends we can stand confident that God loves them and desires that their hearts soften so they can accept God’s free gift of salvation.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 states, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
These verses affirm that God has not given up on the lost and broken. Even in the most dark situations God’s desire is that each and every one of us come to know the truth and to be saved from the powers of sin and death. Have we given up on God as we wait for the hearts of those we love to open up to the Lord? So often we grow weary as we wait on the Lord. We begin to doubt his power and question his plans. Yet, his word tells us that when we ask for anything according to his will he hears us! His will is for all to be saved so he hears our prayers for the salvation of those we love.
In Luke 15 we read about how the Shepherd left his 99 sheep to find the one lost lamb. Jesus told this story during his ministry to illustrate God’s loving heart for humanity. He goes after the lost! There is rejoicing in Heaven every time a soul is adopted in the family of God. He has not forgotten about your loved ones. His ears are open to your prayers and hasn’t stopped working in our lives. God promises that the light is always able to overcome the darkness when our hearts are willing to reach out to him (John 1:5). There is no set of circumstances too bleak that God cannot rewrite our stories for his glory. None of us can be separated by God’s love. The only step we have to take to embrace Jesus’ gift of eternal life is ask him to be ours.
Don’t give up. Continue to stand in the gap for those that God lays on your heart. Pray diligently for them. Embody God’s love in their life. Show them how much the Father cares for them with your own caring words and kindness. Remember that God loves them and desires for them to find freedom and redemption even more than you do. Sometimes we get this picture that God is an angry judge in Heaven, counting our wrongs like Santa. A God that is eager to bring destruction on his creation. Many of us live as though the God we serve can’t wait to condemn us for our sins.
Thankfully, the God that we meet in the Bible is described as being merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love (Psalm 103:8). He did not make us for destruction, he made us to know him and make his love known all over the Earth. Our heart for the wandering souls around us changes when we realize that God is for us. His hope is that all of Creation knows him. Our prayers for unbelieving loved ones align with God’s good plan for them! He loves us.
Let’s pray:
Father, we thank you for your great plan of salvation. Through Jesus you have given each of us a hope and a future. God we bring our loved ones who have yet to embrace your love to your feet. Would you soften their hearts! Exchange their hearts of stone for one that is soft, open, and is yours. Pursue them with your love. I ask that they encounter you. That you would bring a holy interruption into their life that wakes them up to their need for you and your great plan for their lives. Would you silence any lies that are keeping them accepting truth and freedom. Give them eyes to see your goodness, mercy, kindness, and grace. Let the message of Jesus resound in their hearts in a fresh way. Bring them into your family and make them a new creation. Let your love be their anchor, hope, and refuge. Give me the wisdom, boldness, and grace required to be your love embodied when we are together. Amen.
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Editor's Note: We're proud to announce we've just launched a new nighttime companion to Your Daily Prayer: the Your Nightly Prayer devotional. You'll soon be able to subscribe to receive Your Nightly Prayer via email, or as a podcast, but for now you can find it on the website at crosswalk.com/devotionals/your-nightly-prayer. We hope it's a relaxing and soothing way to wind down your day with rich meditations on who God is.
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