During our month of Praying as Jesus Prayed in our Year of the Apprentice, one of my goals was to investigate what actually Jesus prayed for. Not that there are many examples of Jesus’ prayers in the Bible, what did come out was the sheer number of times that Jesus prayed for believers. In John 17 he prayed even for future believers.
I set out a question a couple of Sundays ago as to whether Jesus prayed for unbelievers to be converted. It almost sounds like a no-brainer. However I was a bit surprised to see in my own study that Jesus’ prayer dealt with His own battles (esp. in the Garden) and for believers. One might argue that His prayer for future believers would then mean he prayed FOR people to come to faith. Yes, I can see that to a point.
So does that mean we are not meant to pray for people to come to faith?! No, I don’t think that is the implication. I am wondering if the amount of Jesus’ prayer for Christians should be looked on that if we are walking as we should and doing what God has called us to do, then the Holy Spirit will do His work of convicting and convincing and bringing people to faith. There has to be a willingness of the individual of the person to open their heart and bring down whatever wall they have built.
Just thinking …