• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

St Saviours

A friendly, caring, inter-generational Anglican church in Bournemouth

Sunday Services Email us 01202 430078
Menu
  • Home
  • About us
    • Faith and values
    • Who’s who
    • FAQs
    • Safeguarding
    • Staying safe
    • Close
  • What’s on
    • Calendar
    • Art and Craft Connections
    • Children and families
    • Courses
    • Diamond Times
    • Home groups
    • Knit & Chatter
    • Men
    • Messy Church
    • The Open Link
    • Sunday services
    • Table tennis
    • Women
    • Young people
    • Close
  • Resources
    • Newsletter special
    • Sermons
    • Prayerful Meditations
    • Blog
    • Close
  • Find out about
    • Baptism and thanksgiving
    • Confirmation
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Giving
    • Our teams
    • Mission partners
    • Prayer and Care
    • Close
  • Online Giving
  • Contact us
    • Hall booking
      • Address

        St Saviour’s Chuch, 32 Colemore Road,
        Bournemouth, BH7 6RZ
        Email us
        01202 430078

    • Contact form
    • Close

Home » Blog » Prayers for the lost

Prayers for the lost

27th May 2020 by office_team

As Thy Kingdom Come approaches, Les Barry shares some helpful lessons

A recent reflection from the Church of England included a passage from Genesis 32. In it, Jacob wrestles with God and God blesses him. Our relationship with God allows honesty, and the reflection challenged me with ‘where are you wrestling now?’ I felt prompted to pray and share with God my anguish and heartache over many unbelieving family members, friends, and loved ones. Later, time on the internet led to some helpful reading which I wanted to share with others.

Discovering that Jesus also had unbelieving family members was encouraging. His brothers, James, Judas, Joseph, Simon and his sisters are mentioned in Mark 6:3. Also, John 7:5 says, ‘For even his own brothers did not believe in him.’ And in Mark 3:21 his brothers claimed that Jesus was ‘out of his mind’. Those who lived with Jesus for decades didn’t know him. That’s incredible! The resurrection radically changed this because they joined the disciples in the upper room to wait for the Holy Spirit.

I decided I needed specific pointers to pray effectively for lost brothers and sisters.

  • We need to pray for opportunities to share the gospel with loved ones. Paul says in Colossians 4: 3 – 4 ‘… that God may open a door … so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ … Pray that I may proclaim it clearly.’ We can sow seeds and pray that some will take root, reminding ourselves that God is at work achieving his purposes, however unseen or unacknowledged.
  • We need to pray for God’s help in living the truth. The way we live will be read and inwardly digested as an extension of any words we share with others.
  • Pray too that God will use times of family crisis to awaken the reality of the frail mortality of everyone. Psalm 90:12 says, ‘Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’
  • Finally, we need to ‘pray anyway’. When we have run out of prayers and don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. When our hearts are aligned with God, his Spirit translates our prayers according to his Kingdom purposes. God hears the cries of our hearts and answers with the right thing, ‘far more abundantly than all that we ask or think’. Ephesians 3:20

So please be encouraged and newly refreshed on this journey of prayer for unbelieving loved ones. Don’t take their resistance as the final word – continue in steadfast prayer. Persist – they may yet believe.

Les Barry

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

Recent posts

Back to normal (almost!)

From Sunday 5 September we will be starting a new sermon series as we begin our  journey through Mark’s Gospel. Our … [Read More...] about Back to normal (almost!)

Church opening up

On Monday 12 July Boris Johnson explained the way in which our country will cautiously begin 'opening up' society on … [Read More...] about Church opening up

The real impact

Christie Murphy gives us individual stories from the work of ICN Many of you know that I work for International Care … [Read More...] about The real impact

Footer

Navigation

  • Home
  • About us
  • What’s on
  • Resources
  • Find out about
  • Contact us
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Safeguarding

From the Blog

Back to normal (almost!)

From Sunday 5 September we will be starting a new sermon series as we begin our … [Read More...] about Back to normal (almost!)

Church opening up

On Monday 12 July Boris Johnson explained the way in which our country will … [Read More...] about Church opening up

The real impact

Christie Murphy gives us individual stories from the work of ICN Many of you … [Read More...] about The real impact

Contact us

St Saviour’s Church,
32 Colemore Road,
Bournemouth,
BH7 6RZ

01202 430078

office@stsaviours.net

© 2023 St Saviour's Church · Website by TEKOA Creative