A question for you?

BATHOS

Does God work for the salvation of souls specifically for those around us (friends, family, neighbors, etc) even if we don't pray for them? 

That's my question for you and I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say...

More than a month ago I wrote a post where I mentioned that our church started 40 days of prayer and devotions. We are using the book 40 Days of prayer and devotions to prepare for the Second Coming by Dennis Smith as a catalyst for this venture. Then I wrote another post marking the half way mark of the 40 days and towards the end I stated there was one point that I seem to disagree with the author of the book. I was recently reminded (thank you for that) by someone who commented on my last blog post that I had not yet mentioned what is was.

Here is the comment directly from the book the theme of the day was "Intercessory prayer in the Spirit for Others"Smith says:

"Satan will do everything in his power to make us believe that it is not essential or important that we specifically pray for one another. He wants us to believe that it is not really necessary for us to pray for those who are out of Christ. He (the enemy) wants us to believe that God will work for the salvation of the lost even if we don't specifically pray for those in our circle of family and friends." p.52 (italics and bold mine)

Though I understand and agree with Mr. Smith's overall point regarding the essential or importance of intercessory prayer, it's hard for me to believe that God won't work for the salvation of the lost IF "we don't specifically pray for those in our circle of family and friends." God is a saving God and salvation can not be dependent on whether human beings will pray for each other.

Now the scope of this topic can be lengthy and I don't have the space here. BUT please understand that I fully believe in the power of prayer and I believe by faith that God will work in ways that He perhaps would not if we would not have prayed. With that said though if for some reason 'Johnny' stops praying for his friend 'Ray' I can't believe (and it's unbiblical) that God will say will 'Johnny's' not praying for 'Ray' so I won't work for his salvation.

I've not had the opportunity to discuss this with Pastor Smith and perhaps this is not what he meant but it does seem at least implied if not clearly stated. Again though, the over all scope of the book (and now I'm on day 33) has been very good and I still recommend it with this stated caveat.

So I pose the question for you again:

Does God work for the salvation of souls specifically for those around us (friends, family, neighbors, etc) even if we don't pray for them? 


Javi