When I was growing up, fear was something that I struggled with.  In some ways, it still is.  I’ve had to choose to believe the words of Jesus when He said, “Greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world.”

But overcoming fear or any of the other struggles that plague isn’t a passive thing.  It is when we boldly approach God’s presence in prayer that real victory is found. 

I have a dear friend at our church—an 88-year-old woman.  Her husband of more than 60 years passed away a few years ago, and since then, she’s been going through an identity crisis.  Her companion, friend and partner through decades of life was suddenly gone.  But her God was not.  In the midst of her struggles, she still says to me, “When I can’t sleep at night, I kneel at the side of my bed and pray for you.”

This just amazes me.  In her own grief, she greets me with a hug, and tells me that she’s interceding for my needs and the needs of my family—even in the middle of the night!  I’m not even sure how to respond to this.  Everything that she is going through should push her into a corner of retreat.  Instead, she chooses to “stand on her knees” for the sake of others.

Let me tell you, that’s someone the enemy is scared of. 

We believe that God hears and answers the prayers of His children.  We know that God moves on behalf of His Church.  We experience His peace when we enter His presence.  These are all transformational truths about prayer that rob Satan of his power, and forbid him from having any victory in our lives.

But now let’s apply these truths to how we pray for those who don’t know Jesus.  Most believers have people that we pray for—people who don’t know Him and in many cases, don’t want to know Him.  In fact, if you’re like me, there are times I wonder why I even take the time to pray for people who are so resistant, rebellious and blind. 

But then there are those glorious moments when something amazing and unexpected happens, and the light goes on in someone’s life.  The resistance melts away and the heart that was once made of stone is now moldable clay in the hands of a loving father.

That’s what can happen when people intercede for the lost but it doesn’t always work that way.  Sometimes people die in their stubbornness and rebellion.  But other times, for whatever reason, God softens a person’s heart and a divine transformation takes place because someone cared enough to pray.

Right now you might be stunned to know that there are more than 2.5 billion people who have never heard the gospel.  Worse yet is the fact that about 70,000 of those people die every day—no knowledge of Jesus, no eternal hope.

Of all the injustices that exist in our world today, what could be worse?  70,000 people a day enter eternity without Christ?  I think this fact should make believers do two things

1)      Grieve.  If the lost mean so much to God that He would offer His only Son on their behalf, how can they mean any less to us.

2)      Pray.  It seems so simple, but the fact is, there aren’t nearly enough followers of Christ agonizing in prayer for those who have never heard His name.

I want to challenge all of us as followers of Christ and people who have been forever blessed to know Him to take on the holy privilege and responsibility of praying for the unreached.  What do you suppose would happen if the Church collectively went down on bended knee and together prayed, “Lord, show yourself to those who have never heard, and use us as your instruments to make this happen.”

The enemy would tremble.  He cannot resist when the Spirit of God moves. 

Don’t hear me wrong.  There are those who will never receive the gift, but shouldn’t everyone at least have the chance?

Here’s a place you can start.  PRAY!

Reach Beyond has a daily prayer guide that you can subscribe to receive each month. You can download the most recent edition at: reachbeyond.org/prayerworld.

Use these prayer tools to guide you into the presence of God on behalf of the unreached. 

Let’s be people who scare the enemy.  We might be surprised at what happens.