To Love Means to Pray

      By Fern Horst

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:47-50)

A furnace of fire in which there are people wailing and gnashing their teeth is not at all something I like to think about. I have a heart of mercy and do not wish for even the most evil of persons to have to experience such a destiny. The worst part is that the fire in the furnace will never end for these people, and their wailing and gnashing will go on for forever.

When I think of heaven, and that we who have accepted Christ as our Saviour will live in that glorious place with Him for forever, eternity sounds like a wonderful concept. But that foreverness is also what makes hell such a horrible place: there will be no escape from it for those who rejected Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. I don't want anyone to have to experience such an awful place!

I attended a funeral this past week of a lady who accepted Christ as her Saviour over 30 years ago. I was a young girl when she and her husband became Christians. As I grew up I also watched them grow up in their faith which became strong for both of them. Her husband tells us that as she gasped for air in the last moments of her earthly life, she pleaded, "Lord, please take me!" She knew that on the other side of her last breath here she would be in the presence of her Lord, and that made death a welcome passageway from her suffering here to her eternal Home.

As I expressed my sympathy to her son, the first words out of his mouth in response were, "What keeps me going is knowing without a doubt that she's in a much better place." His assurance of her eternal home came from seeing the evidence of her faith in Christ and her relationship with Him.

Going to this funeral I also came into contact with people I care deeply about but who I am uncertain about their relationships with Jesus. When I came home that night my heart was heavy - not for the lady who had died, but for those I had seen there who continue to struggle with turning their lives over completely to the Lordship of Christ. I want to make that decision for them, but I can't. To me it seems so easy. To them it seems so difficult. I feel so helpless to do anything to help them.

But there is something I can do. It's something I've been doing for them for years. Seeing them again for the first time in over ten years renewed my commitment to keep on doing it. As the Holy Spirit brings them to my mind - and sometimes it's the strangest times when He does - I am committed to praying for them. Sometimes it seems so futile and like a waste of my time. But when I read the reminders in God's Word about the two different places where people will spend eternity, I know that I have no choice but to keep on praying for them.

There's no doubt that each one of us care about at least one person who doesn't know the Lord, or who hasn't completely submitted themselves to Him. As we have opportunity it's important that we encourage them in making that commitment. But we don't always have opportunities to do that, nor is it always wise to continue to talk when they aren't ready to act.

Prayer is the powerful tool we do have, however, to make a difference in their lives. I don't understand how prayer works, but I do know that it is a mechanism by which God works in the lives of those we care about. Won't you join me in praying for these people we love who haven't yet turned their lives over to Christ? Prayer for others is a ministry that every Believer has been given, perhaps especially single Believers who are not distracted by family responsibilities. Let's make sure that we don't neglect this ministry. Someone's eternal destiny may be depending upon it - someone we care deeply about.

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:16)

© 2007 Fern Horst

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