Praying for the salvation of others. Please help me understand something.

[Time To Go]

Hello,

Not too long ago I became a christian (again). I had been away for a very long time. I'm not even sure if I was one before (I had no real conviction of sin) but that's another question for another day.

This is my first post, and there are many things I don't yet understand.

Here is my question: I find myself often praying for the salvation of others. I know that God was very patient with me, so it gives me great hope that my friends, family, enemies, and strangers won't be as stubborn as I was. But this is what I don't understand: I don't know if what I'm doing is helping at all. I believe that God desires all to be saved. I also believe that God tries to draw people to him, but he won't compel them or force them against their will.

So if God is already doing everything he possibly can do, and is already going as far as he is willing to go, how can my prayers be of any help?

It's not like I can ask God to try harder (he's already doing all that he can).

It's not like I can ask God overwhelm someone (he won't violate their free will).

So are my prayers helping at all? Besides making myself feel better, I don't understand how I can be helping at all.

Adding to my confusion, not long after being born again I started leaning towards Calvinism but quickly found problems with it (thanks RR message board) that could not be reconciled with my (new) beliefs about the love and character of God. But my own personal conversion experience sure felt like it was God who was saving me despite myself.

Please help me understand this.

[Genesis22]

We don't always know exactly HOW our prayers are going to help, but since God tells us to pray for others, we need to do it and trust that He knows why. He wouldn't tell us to do something for no reason, so there is a reason whether we understand it or not. Does that make sense?

We know that God loves us and wants to communicate with us, so that alone shoud be enough reason to pray and tell Him every single desire that we have- because we want to communicate and have a deeper relationship with Him. Yes God already knows what we want from Him and can do it just fine without us, but He chooses to use us because He loves us as His children and wants us to be part of His great plan. It's kind of like a parent having their young child help with chores around the house. The child is usually slow and messes up their job a lot, and the parent has to go back and undo a ot of what the child did wrong. The parent could just do the job themself a lot quicker and easier (and quite honestly, better), but they choose to use the child to include them and teach them. That's kind of how I see God.

So, while I can't tell you exactly what good our prayers do, we know that God has a purpose for them or He wouldn't have commanded us to pray. That's enough of a reason to do it.

[NoProvision]

I know that when I'm praying for an enemy, I can't be hating them at the same time. If I'm praying for someone that I assume is lost then I'm not condemning them. It might be as much for our benefit as it is for those for whom we are praying. It's a good question.

[Acts5:41]

I always look at it like the Prime Directive from Star Trek.

Many times, they couldn't help unless they were ASKED to do so.

It works for me, at least.

[gracealone11]

Time to Go, my experience has been JUST like yours. I'm not sure if I backslid or was just never a christian but things have never been the same since an eventful early morning October 2010. Since then, I have had such a desire to PRAY for the salvation of others. All I know is that I was a mess and God in mercy led my mother and father to pray for me continuously and also when I cried out to Christ, He saved me. In some of my darkest, darkest nights, I'd later find out my mom would be woken up in the night to pray for me. They prayed for years for me and now my life is a testimony to God's power and salvation. God is so loving and merciful to us.

After that early morning, I immediately got a strong desire to start praying for my older brother in particular and saw fruits of those prayers months later. I was almost in shock when it happened but my faith and desire to pray for others was sooo strengthened. I know without a doubt it is The Holy Spirit giving me this desire. I can't tell you how much I could have not cared less to do so before. If it is a desire of The Lord, He knows why. He doesn't need our prayers but He WANTS them from us. I personally believe it's because He is preparing to do something in that person's life from what I have seen and just wants us to pray as there is power in our prayers to Him.

I remember recently that a cousin from the UK came to visit us. My parents shared with me that we should start praying for his salvation before he arrived. Anyway, we were all praying for him. We had family devotion some nights he was there and he would ask questions (out of curiosity) about the word of God and he seemed to really listen. One day, I took him out to see the city and while we were just hanging out in front of a park, a woman came out of NOWHERE and asked us if we knew Jesus Christ as our personal saviour! I said yes and he hesitated and she picked up on it and asked him if he was sure. He said no and she just walked away. That day, I had prayed that God would open doors for me to talk to my cousin about Christ and well, there it was! I'll say that what that lady did has NEVER happened to me. God loves him so much that he led that woman, he led us to talk to him about Christ and pray for him. I told him that and my testimony. He listened. So much more happened but it solidified in our hearts that God PLANNED for him to come visit us and we continue to pray for him. Before he left, he shared that he was touched by our devotion to God. He didn't come to Christ but I know many, many seeds were planted. The Holy Spirit is definitely at work in his heart and we just have to continue to pray for Him.

God is so good and He alone is mighty to save!

[Cindy S.]

It's wonderful having 2 new RR members interested in praying for others.
Welcome to RR
Would you pray for my daughter too?

[Kliska]

Hello,

Not too long ago I became a christian (again). I had been away for a very long time. I'm not even sure if I was one before (I had no real conviction of sin) but that's another question for another day.

This is my first post, and there are many things I don't yet understand.

Welcome! Please do head over to the New Members forum and introduce yourself there; we'd love to hear your testimony, esp. since it seems like you may have some questions about your conversion.

Here is my question: I find myself often praying for the salvation of others. I know that God was very patient with me, so it gives me great hope that my friends, family, enemies, and strangers won't be as stubborn as I was. But this is what I don't understand: I don't know if what I'm doing is helping at all. I believe that God desires all to be saved. I also believe that God tries to draw people to him, but he won't compel them or force them against their will.

So if God is already doing everything he possibly can do, and is already going as far as he is willing to go, how can my prayers be of any help?

It's not like I can ask God to try harder (he's already doing all that he can).

It's not like I can ask God overwhelm someone (he won't violate their free will).

So are my prayers helping at all? Besides making myself feel better, I don't understand how I can be helping at all.

Believers are God's children, when we pray, we are having conversations with our Father. Unfortunately for them, God is not the Father of unbelievers. He strives with them, but does not have the same relationship with Him as believers do. God wants His children to ask Him for things, as well as "just" conversing with Him as we would a loving Father and Friend.

We are told; Proverbs 15:29 The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.

And

James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much

Who is a righteous man? The only Righteous Man was Jesus Christ; however, when we become believers, His righteousness is imputed to us, so we also have right-standing with God. God is in relationship with us, He hears us, and if it be in His will, He'll answer us. It is just and right for us to pray for those who are not yet His Children, for our prayers are precious to Him, and He hears us. What other reason do we need?

As CS Lewis points out; God is outside of time, and He knows our prayers even before we pray them; He can literally respond to us before the world was formed. Our prayer has power, because of His love and relationship with us as believers.

Adding to my confusion, not long after being born again I started leaning towards Calvinism but quickly found problems with it (thanks RR message board) that could not be reconciled with my (new) beliefs about the love and character of God. But my own personal conversion experience sure felt like it was God who was saving me despite myself.

Please help me understand this.

You'll probably have to give us more information in order to discuss this. You point out that it was a personal conversion, between you and God. You indeed have and had a choice to respond or not. There are others that God has called as He called you, and they deny Him.

Just a note; when writing about God, we capitalize the pronouns that refer to Him out of respect, such as He, Him, etc...

[Time To Go]

It's wonderful having 2 new RR members interested in praying for others.
Welcome to RR
Would you pray for my daughter too?

Of course!

[thexter]

Prayer works. I was living in sin and about to get into more sin when my loving wife prayed for me one night to be saved. That night, the Lord worked on me and showed me the error of my ways and the path I was headed down. Boom, I did a 180 and have been praising the Lord ever since. So keep praying.