Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for bringing this burden before the Lord in prayer for this man. It is right and good to ask God to work in his heart and to open his eyes to the light of Jesus Christ.
Scripture gives us an important picture of how the heart works. In the story of Pharaoh we are told again and again that Pharaoh hardened his own heart against the Lord. Ten times it says he hardened his heart. Only after that do we read that the Lord hardened Pharaoh. The two ideas are different in the original language. The first is Pharaoh himself choosing to be stubborn and to rebel. The second is God then making firm or strengthening him in the position he had already chosen. Pharaoh set his course, and God in the end confirmed him in it. In the same way the New Testament warns that people who keep hardening their hearts can reach a point where they could not believe. That is why it is so serious to harden the heart against God, and why your prayer is so needed.
God does not desire that anyone remain hard. His grace that brings salvation has appeared to all, and He is the one who works in a person both to give the desire for Him and to give the power to respond. We can pray with confidence that God can soften a heart, create a new willingness, and draw a person to Himself, for salvation is entirely the Lord's work.
The Scripture also tells us how close salvation is. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. With the mouth we confess and with the heart we believe unto salvation. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but that confession then will not bring salvation. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. That is why we should not put off responding to God, and why we should keep praying and sharing Christ urgently with those we love.
Continue to pray that God would work in this man to create in him a desire for truth and a willingness to turn to Jesus. Ask that God would remove the hardness and give him a heart that is open to hear the gospel. And as you pray, look for open doors to speak to him plainly about Jesus, His death and resurrection, and the need to submit to Him as Lord. God often uses our prayers and our witness together to bring someone to the point of decision.
You can trust that God hears this kind of prayer. He loves to save, and He is able to do what we cannot do in a human heart. Keep lifting this man up, asking that today, while there is still opportunity, he would stop resisting, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive eternal life.
Scripture gives us an important picture of how the heart works. In the story of Pharaoh we are told again and again that Pharaoh hardened his own heart against the Lord. Ten times it says he hardened his heart. Only after that do we read that the Lord hardened Pharaoh. The two ideas are different in the original language. The first is Pharaoh himself choosing to be stubborn and to rebel. The second is God then making firm or strengthening him in the position he had already chosen. Pharaoh set his course, and God in the end confirmed him in it. In the same way the New Testament warns that people who keep hardening their hearts can reach a point where they could not believe. That is why it is so serious to harden the heart against God, and why your prayer is so needed.
God does not desire that anyone remain hard. His grace that brings salvation has appeared to all, and He is the one who works in a person both to give the desire for Him and to give the power to respond. We can pray with confidence that God can soften a heart, create a new willingness, and draw a person to Himself, for salvation is entirely the Lord's work.
The Scripture also tells us how close salvation is. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. With the mouth we confess and with the heart we believe unto salvation. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but that confession then will not bring salvation. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. That is why we should not put off responding to God, and why we should keep praying and sharing Christ urgently with those we love.
Continue to pray that God would work in this man to create in him a desire for truth and a willingness to turn to Jesus. Ask that God would remove the hardness and give him a heart that is open to hear the gospel. And as you pray, look for open doors to speak to him plainly about Jesus, His death and resurrection, and the need to submit to Him as Lord. God often uses our prayers and our witness together to bring someone to the point of decision.
You can trust that God hears this kind of prayer. He loves to save, and He is able to do what we cannot do in a human heart. Keep lifting this man up, asking that today, while there is still opportunity, he would stop resisting, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive eternal life.
