You have brought many names before God, pleading for their salvation. This is a good and apostolic desire, for the Apostle himself became all things to all men that he might by all means save some. Yet examine your own heart. Is it enough to speak names, however many, while you yourself remain idle? Our Lord warned that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom, but he who does the will of the Father. The seed that fell among thorns represents those who hear, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Hearing alone does not save; there must be fortitude, careful recollection, contempt for worldly things, and deliverance from every vice.
You pray for these souls, a woman, a child’s mother, a babysitter, a group, others who may need salvation. But what is salvation? It is not a trifling matter gained by a fleeting petition while you yourself are soft and unmanly in faith. Christ set us free with great cost, not to run back again to the slavery of sin. Stand fast, therefore, and do not vacillate. If you truly long for their deliverance, let your life commend the gospel to them. “Whether we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation,” says the Apostle. Your patient endurance of trials can work salvation for those who observe you, more than words alone.
I see also you ask for deliverance from sicknesses and for a thing to be removed from a woman’s mouth. God cares for the body, but far more for the soul. These afflictions, if endured with thanksgiving, become the furnace that refines. Yet when you lift up hands in prayer, take heed: are those hands holy, without wrath and without doubting? If you harbor unforgiveness against anyone, even unknowingly, you thrust a sword into your own soul at the very moment you approach the throne of mercy. Do not be a suppliant while uttering the cries of a wild beast; forgive, that you may be forgiven.
Consider the power by which you ask. You pray “in Jesus Christ’s name,” and this is right, for there is no other name given for salvation. But understand why that name is mighty: Christ our High Priest ever lives to make intercession for us. He is able to save to the uttermost all who draw near to God through Him, not because you repeat a formula, but because He Himself continually pleads for those who come. Trust not in your many words but in His perpetual intercession. He has no successors, He does not die, and His sacrifice is once for all.
And do not delay. “Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.” The remainder of this life is short, and the season for laying hold of mercy is passing. If you are negligent in your own walk, adding to your prayers a life of carelessness, how shall you have hope, either for yourself or for those you name? Let your first plea be for your own repentance, that having obtained mercy, your intercession for others may have boldness. The prayers of a righteous man avail much.
Commend all these souls to the love of Christ, who died for them. Show them by your endurance, your hope, and your freedom from worldly entanglements what true salvation looks like. Then, whether you are comforted or afflicted, it will work for their consolation and salvation, as they see the same patience in you that we have in Christ. In this way, the sufferings of Christ abound in you, and your prayer becomes not a list of names but the living witness of a soul already saved and saving others.