Praying for Unsaved Loved Ones
Has your love for someone ever overwhelmed you so much that you ended up weeping like a child? Maybe you tearfully started praising God for bringing this person into your life. In that moment, it almost feels as if your heart is not able to house so much love for one person. I love experiencing love like that. It's breathtaking, exhausting, but truly amazing.
Sometimes, however, these overwhelming experiences of love can end up making me cry my eyes out of sadness instead: this happens when I truly, fully realize that this person, whom I love so dearly, doesn’t know the love of Jesus yet. Seeing them search for contentment, inner peace, their life’s purpose, knowing what it is they need…it breaks my heart. Because I want to see them happy. I want them to experience love like I do. Better yet, I want them to experience love like Jesus does.
They don’t know what they’re missing, but we know. And we can’t force God’s love on them; they have to find it and choose to accept it themselves. But I want to encourage you today to make it your personal mission to keep praying for your loved ones. Even though it seems like your prayers haven’t been working, there is tremendous power in the words you speak to Jesus.
Why should you keep praying for the hearts of your loved ones?
You are a woman of God
Because you are a woman of God, Jesus is your closest confidant. He is our great example. And Jesus never gave up…He never gave up on us:
He also spoke this parable: ‘A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, “Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?” But he answered and said to him, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.” - Luke 13:6-9
Even though we're not worthy of His pleading for us, He does it anyway. Because He's not a quitter. Because He loves us. Because it's His ultimate goal for us to have a relationship with our heavenly Father. We shouldn’t quit on our loved ones either. Because we love them. Because our ultimate goal is for them to have a relationship with Him as well. See the resemblance?
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. - John 15:12
Jesus couldn’t even be stopped by death. And honestly, we shouldn’t be either. I imagine us praying for our loved ones before His throne, even after death. That’s how far we should be willing to go if that means they will have another chance to get to know our God. Because that’s how far Jesus went for us. And look what it brought us: eternal life and unconditional love.
So that’s why your loved ones need you to keep praying for them: because you have the greatest role model in the history of mankind. Jesus taught us to never give up, to persevere regardless the circumstances. Your loved ones need someone who does exactly that for them in prayer.
You can see God’s purpose for their lives
Listen humbly to other people in your life: They not only confirm your gifts. They are the instruments of God to awaken in you possibilities. - based on 2 Timothy 1:5-7
We are the ‘other people’ apostle Paul talks about. This message includes a mission for us concerning our loved ones: to confirm their gifts and awaken possibilities in them. I don’t know about you, but when I look at my loved ones I can see the talents God entrusted to them; I can see what God created them for; I can see how much joy it would bring God if those talents were to be used for Him.
You and I see things in our loved ones that other people cannot see. We can imagine the life calling they could have, the ministry they could do, the influence they could have on other people’s lives. We see in them what they cannot see yet either, and it is a powerful virtue. We need to ask God to give us opportunities to point out to our loved ones their God-given possibilities and gifts.
Don’t give up on them, sister. Imagine the mind-blowing ways in which they could praise our Father. We wouldn’t want God, and the world, to miss out on that would we?
You love them
There is power in every person’s genuine prayer, so any believer could pray for your loved ones and it would make a difference, but your prayers have extra power.
Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. - Luke 7:11-15
Imagine how brokenhearted this mother must have been. She was a widow, and now she had lost her everything: her only son. And then, there was Jesus. He saw her crying her eyes out. He saw her being filled with grief. It touched Him. All He wanted to do was comfort her. So He healed her son…from death.
Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll — are they not in your record? - Psalm 56:8 (NIV)
Jesus sees you crying in your room over your loved ones’ hearts. He sees you grieving over their unsaved souls. And it touches Him. You are His child; He doesn’t want to see you hurting. He will not let the tears you shed go to waste.
Dearest, the prayers you say for your loved ones make a difference because they touch God’s heart. And when God’s heart is touched, miracles happen. So pray until your voice stops, cry until you’re out of tears, plead until Jesus says “It is finished.”
PS. If you have unsaved loved ones you need help praying for, make sure to submit their names to our Prayer Wall!