The Christian’s Prayer

“Each person we meet on a daily basis who does not know Christ is hell-bound. That may make some folks bristle—but it’s a fact. When we refuse to warn people that their actions and lifestyles have eternal consequences, we’re not doing them any favors. If everybody feels good about his or her sin, why would anyone repent?”

Franklin Graham

Kirk Cameron’s Comment

This moving prayer was eye-opening for me. The response to the prayer really made me think of the biblical way to present the gospel to the unsaved. Ponder this lesson carefully, and it will change your prayer life.

Questions & Objections

Lesson

The Christian’s Prayer

“Father, I have a problem. It’s weighing heavy on me. It’s all I can think about, night and day.

“But before I bring it to you in prayer, I suppose I should pray for those who are less fortunate than me—those in this world who have hardly enough food for this day, and those who don’t have a roof over their heads at night. I also pray for families who have lost loved ones in sudden death, for parents whose children have leukemia, for the many people who are dying of brain tumors, for the hundreds of thousands who are laid waste with other terrible cancers, for people whose bodies have been suddenly shattered in car wrecks, for those who are lying in hospitals with agonizing burns over their bodies, whose faces have been burned beyond recognition.

“I pray for people with emphysema, whose eyes fill with terror as they struggle for every breath merely to live, for those who are tormented beyond words by irrational fears, for the elderly who are wracked with the pains of aging, whose only ‘escape’ is death.

“I pray for people who are watching their loved ones fade before their eyes through the grief of Alzheimer’s disease, for the many thousands who are suffering the agony of AIDS, for those who are in such despair that they are about to commit suicide, for people who are tormented by the demons of alcoholism and drug addiction.

“I pray for children who have been abandoned by their parents, for those who are sexually abused, for wives held in quiet despair, beaten and abused by cruel and drunken husbands, for people whose minds have been destroyed by mental disorders, for those who have lost everything in floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

“I pray for the blind, who never see the faces of the ones they love or the beauty of a sunrise, for those whose bodies are horribly deformed by painful arthritis, for the many whose lives will be taken from them today by murderers, for those wasting away on their deathbeds in hospitals.

“Most of all, I cry out for the millions who don’t know the forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ ... for those who in a moment of time will be swept into hell by the cold hand of death, and find to their utter horror the unspeakable vengeance of eternal fire. They will be eternally damned to everlasting punishment. O God, I pray for them.

“Now, for my problem ... Strange. I can’t seem to remember what it was.

“In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

A Response We Received to the Prayer

“I was really tracking with the prayer until you got to the horribly cruel notion that people can be won to the loving kingdom of God by sharing with them the darkness and torment of HELL. How could you possibly end such a beautiful prayer, full of compassion and grace, with such horribly twisted thoughts of eternal damnation and doom? Is this the picture that our Lord Jesus Christ, in all His love and mercy, would have us share? I’m sorry, if this is the Christ you serve, then I must pass on the invitation. The world I live in is often a living hell without someone painting an even more depressing image of an eternal hell as a means to show me the love, mercy, and grace of Christ.

“Please prayerfully rethink the ending of this prayer. Please seek to draw those who are in despair and those who do not know the Christ by painting an image of a loving God who cares enough to give all that heaven had to offer—Himself! Thank you for the effort. I wish it would have ended differently. Your brother in Christ...”

My friend, I stand in judgment now, And feel that you’re to blame somehow. On earth I walked with you by day, And never did you show the way. You knew the Savior in truth and glory, But never did you tell the story. My knowledge then was very dim. You could have led me safe to Him. Though we lived together, here on earth, You never told me of the second birth. And now I stand before eternal hell, Because of heaven’s glory you did not tell! —Anonymous

Preacher’s Progress

A sample witnessing conversation, written in the style of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Feathers for Arrows

The story of the Titanic has incredibly close parallels to the biblical plan of salvation. Just as the great pleasure ship struck an iceberg and sank, this great world—with all its inhabitants—is slowly sinking into the cold grip of death. As with the Titanic, where only those passengers who believed that they were in impending danger looked to the lifeboats, so only those who believe that they are in mortal danger will look to the Lifeboat of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The great “iceberg” that will take the world to an icy grave is the Moral Law—the Ten Commandments.

Here is the evidence that we are sinking: Jesus said that if we look with lust, we commit adultery in our heart. No one who has had sex outside of marriage, or any liar, or any thief will enter heaven. The Bible says that if we hate someone, we are guilty of murder. We fail to put God first. We make a god in our image. We break all the Commandments. If we stay with the “ship,” we will perish on the Day of Judgment, when all of our sins come out as evidence of our guilt. God, however, is rich in mercy and doesn’t want anyone to go to hell. He made a way for us to be saved. Jesus Christ, the One whom the Bible calls the “Captain of our salvation,” gave His life so that we could have a place in the lifeboat. He took our punishment upon Himself, suffering on the cross for us. We broke God’s Law, but He paid our fine. Then He rose from the dead, defeating death. The moment we repent and trust in Him alone for our eternal salvation, God will forgive us and grant us the gift of eternal life.

Don’t hesitate. You may wait until it’s too late! It was reported that some of the lifeboats that left the Titanic early were only half full. Many more on board could have been saved, but they refused to believe that the great “unsinkable” ship was sinking. They perished because their faith was misguided. Don’t be like them. Believe the gospel. Repent and trust Jesus Christ today ... and God will never let you down.

Questions

1. What impact did the “Christian’s Prayer” have on your problems?
2. Give your thoughts on the “Response to the Prayer.”
3. Put in your own words what Jesus was saying in Mark 9:47, 48.

Answers to these review questions are provided in the back of the printed book / source PDF.

Memory Verse

“I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

John 10:9-10

Last Words

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet, died June 28, 1861. Her last word was in reply to her husband who had asked how she felt: “Beautiful.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning