Praying for the Lost

Please read this !! It is another testimony of God at work at RBC. The idea is inspired and self explanatory. Having a prayer list for people who are lost is something we MUST DO. I do not say we must do it because it is a good idea, or because I am the pastor, and I can say "We must do it." I say we must pray for the lost, because it is Biblical.

1 Timothy 2:1-5
First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (NASU)

Let me say this: If you are worried about offending someone by putting their name on a prayer list, then use their first name only, or even just their initials. God knows who they are, and He will hear our prayer as we pray for people to be saved.


Hello church! This is Marci S. writing here. Most of you probably don't know who I am because I'm such a quiet in the background kind of person. But that's OK you don't have to know me. I'm writing because recently one of Andy's sermons made me start thinking. It was the one about prayer. Ephesians 1:17-23. One of the things he said was that we need to have perspective and pray for spiritual things more than physical needs. He said that sometimes we pray for a lost person's health but don't pray for their salvation. I immediately thought of my young cousin Austin. He is somewhere around 6 yrs old and losing his hair in large patches. They don't know why. When I heard about it I thought 'I need to pray for him.' He and his family are not saved and I don't remember anytime recently praying for their salvation. After Andy's sermon that Sunday I realized that I have so many unsaved relatives who need prayer. I know we as a church in our Sunday school classes have prayer lists and that sort of thing but I would like to start a church wide prayer list of nothing but unsaved family, friends, co-workers, neighbors etc. I proposed the idea to Andy and he thought it was good. So after a week of praying and thinking about how to do it here's what I feel we should do. I have opened an email account the address is salvationprayers@hotmail.com I would love for everyone in the church to be involved in this. Please send the names of every unsaved person you know to this address. Also please tell me if you would like to receive the list to pray for these people. If someone that you put on this list gets saved please let me know! We want to see the results of our prayers and praise God for them. Also if someone we are praying for is starting to go to church or is asking questions or anything that shows you God is working on their heart please send me those updates. I will update the list and send it out either monthly or weekly. At first probably weekly as I expect to have frequent emails to start with. I realize this will be a very long list and it will take a long time to pray for every individual on the list. A good goal would be to pray through the list once a month. Take several people each day and pray for them. I would recommend printing out the list. If you do this you could even cut the list into sections. Each day as you get ready to do whatever you are doing grab a section and put it in your pocket. Every time you think of it pull it out and pray for those people. However you do it is fine those are just a few suggestions. If we get everyone praying and everyone prays for each person at least once a month think how many people are in our church, that's how many times each person will be prayed for that month. Not just that one time that you pray but I hope hundreds of times. We need to pray for the lost to come into our church. Every week at the end of the service we have an invitation. We have seen a few people saved and every single one is reason to celebrate. But every week that no one comes I wonder why not. I think to myself, maybe that means everyone here is saved. That's good right? But then I think, why aren't there lost people here? Aren't they our mission? Is everyone in Bixby saved? No. We need to start praying for the lost. It's not our job to go out and bang down doors and drag people in. It's not our job to have a big exciting program to bring them in. It is our job to pray, and to be available to talk to anyone God leads us to. If we don't do this then Andy is preaching to the choir. Yes the things we learn are good for us to learn but what's the point of us being the only ones who hear it? We'll become, as Andy said himself, religious fatheads. I believe that many of us in our church have gone through personal revival in the past year, myself included. It's time to move it outside our church walls and the walls of our homes. One of the most important things we can do is pray. So sorry if this email got a little long I tend to do that! If you want to put someone on the list please send me their names. If you do not want their full name listed just let me know what you want listed. We can do first names, initials, whatever. God will know who they are. For those who would like to get this list emailed to you please send me a message and I'll add you. If for any reason you ever feel you need to be taken off the mailing list just let me know. I think God can use this in mighty ways. God can do awesome things! Thanks! Marci

Remember - this is a work in progress so be patient with any glitches or tweaks. Thank you Marci. May God bless this part or our prayer ministry.

AJ