18 Prayers for Unbelievers by Tim Challies - November 15, 2016

A friend asked the question: How do I pray for unbelievers? How do I pray effectively? I trust that every Christian regularly prays for family or friends or colleagues or neighbors who do not yet know the Lord. And while we can and must pray for matters related to their lives and circumstances, the emphasis of our prayers must always be for their salvation. Here are some ways the Bible can guide our prayers.

The Apostle Paul famously said that his “heart’s desire” and his “prayer to God” is that his fellow Jews “may be saved” (Rom. 10:1). The problem was that these “kinsmen according to the flesh” were lost—bound for an eternity without God—which filled Paul’s heart with “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” (Rom. 9:2-3).

Because we are sinners, we can take a true doctrine (God’s absolute sovereignty) and make it incompatible with an appropriate emotion (unceasing anguish for the lost). In a sermon from several years ago, John Piper explained three ways we can experience a disconnect between the biblical doctrine and the appropriate emotional state:

What If They Ask Me a Question I Can’t Answer?

We are living in a time when fewer people have a basic understanding of faith, so we need to be prepared for questions, criticisms, and general skepticism about Christianity.

Don’t be surprised if you hear things like: “Doesn't Christianity crush diversity?" "How can you take the Bible literally?" "Doesn't religion cause violence?" "Doesn't Christianity denigrate women?" "Isn't the Bible homophobic?" "Hasn't science disproved Christianity?" "How could a loving God allow suffering?" "How can you say there's only one true faith?" "How can you say God even exists?" and others.