Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1)
Paul was a Jew who knew the difference between Judaism and Christianity. As a saved believer his greatest desire and his ask from God was for his Israelite brothers and sisters to be saved. What is your ask? When was the last time you begged God for something? My hunch is it was probably something like please let me get this job, please let the loan go through, or please just let this surgery go well. All these are important things to pray about, however when was the last time you begged God for another person’s soul.
I shared with the youth at Bible study Sunday night about the importance of prayer in ministry and I shared a quote from Samuel Chadwick “One concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayer-less studies, prayer-less work, and prayer-less religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.” The reason it makes Satan tremble is because prayer calls the power of God into the fight. So the question needs to be are you calling God into the fight for another person’s salvation? We pray for needs, surgeries, job opportunities, to pass tests, heal sickness—- but are we consistently praying for a specific person to be saved?
Every day as believers, who can tap into the mighty power of God, we should be praying consistently and specifically for the salvation of another soul. To stay in consistent prayer creates consistent opportunities for salvation to be shared which makes us more alert or aware to seize those opportunities. So as we pray for others also let God know you are available to be used in the salvation of others (it is not about your ability, but your availability. Who is it that God is laying on your heart that you are laying at his feet in prayer?
In His Service,
Eric Barnes
