The Gospel is the good news that God became man in Christ. He lived the sinless life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. Three days after His death by crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead and proved that He was indeed the Son of God. Because He conquered both sin and death, anyone who repents and believes in the atonement and work of Christ receives forgiveness and eternal life. The work of Christ means breaking down the dividing wall between God and man and making our adoption as God’s children possible.
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the love, grace, and mercy that You ultimately displayed on the cross. I thank You because Your mercy made me alive after being dead to my trespasses. Now I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer me who lives but He in me. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
A Gospel Prayer
What do you pray for in a Gospel prayer?
The first paragraph in this article is the short definition of the Gospel. It is the good news of God’s redemptive work, by which anyone who believes and repents can be saved. A Gospel prayer is, therefore, a prayer for someone to be saved.
You can pray for two things as you pray for someone to believe the Gospel and repent to be saved. The first is to pray that God will turn a person’s heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.
In Ezekiel 36:26, it is written that God gives us a new heart and puts a new spirit in us. He is the One Who removes our hearts of stone and turns them into hearts of flesh. A person with a hardened heart is one who, no matter how much you preach the Gospel, will never believe or humble themselves.
The second thing you can pray is for God to open the person’s spiritual eyes. Because of sin, we are all spiritually blind, and because of that, we can never see Christ. A good example of this is the man born blind in John 9. Jesus healed a man who had been blind since birth. The blind man, who could now see, was brought to the Pharisees, who wanted to confirm if it were really he who was born blind and learn how Jesus healed him. When they inquired about Jesus, the man who was blind answered all the questions that the Pharisees asked, yet they remained skeptical about Who Christ was.
The Pharisees threw the man out. When Jesus found him, He asked the man if he believed in the Son of Man. The man who was blind replied with an earnest “yes,” so Jesus introduced Himself as the One Whom the blind man was looking for. Jesus didn’t only open the physical eyes of this man but also his spiritual eyes. Even though the man couldn’t see Jesus’ face yet, he knew that the One Who healed him was the Messiah, and, thus, he longed to meet Him. However, despite Jesus being in front of them all along and despite having the intellectual prowess of all who had expert knowledge of the law, the Pharisees missed out on Who Christ was. Thus, it was the man whose spiritual eyes were opened who saw Who Christ was and his need for Him and who worshipped Him.
When we pray for a person to be saved, we pray for the Holy Spirit to work on their heart, turning their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. When their hearts are softened, they humble themselves and receive the Gospel. We also pray for the Holy Spirit to open a person’s spiritual eyes so that when the Gospel is preached, they will see Who Christ is and their need for Him.
Praying for God to soften one’s heart and open their spiritual eyes is also praying for God’s grace and mercy upon them. In Ephesians 2:1-9, it is written that we are all dead in our trespasses. A dead person floating in the sea, even if you give him a life jacket, cannot use it to be saved because he is dead. Life has to be given to the dead person so that he can take the life jacket and use it. The same goes for us when the Holy Spirit works in our lives. The Bible says that we are all dead in our trespasses, but because God is merciful, He made us alive in Christ, in which His grace saves us through the Gospel.
Our salvation is not our own doing but God’s work in our lives. That is why no one may boast, but it gives us hope that no matter how evil a person may be, no one is too far from the grace of God. Once the Holy Spirit works in their lives, they will believe and repent, knowing and seeing God’s love for them as displayed on the cross. One excellent example of this is the apostle Paul, who was once a persecutor of the church, as mentioned in Galatians 1:13.
Father in heaven, I thank You because Your mercy made me alive after having been dead in my trespasses. You raised me and seated me in the heavenly places with Christ. Thank You because it is by Your grace that I have been saved through faith. It is a free gift from You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
A Gospel Prayer
How do I pray a Gospel prayer for others?
You pray the Gospel prayer by praying for God to work in the lives of those you are reaching out to or preaching the Gospel to. You specifically pray this by praying to God to open the spiritual eyes of the people to whom you are preaching the Gospel and for God to soften their hearts. This is so that when you or someone else preaches the Gospel to them, they shall see Who Christ is and their need for a savior and believe in Him.
Heavenly Father, as I preach the Gospel to my workmate later, I pray that You soften his heart. Turn his heart of stone to a heart of flesh so that he will be humble enough to receive the Gospel and trust Christ. Open his spiritual eyes so that he may see Christ and his need for him. Work in his heart, Holy Spirit, and prepare his heart for the Gospel so that he will respond to it by believing and repenting. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
A Gospel Prayer
As we reach out to the lost, we reach out to them not just by preaching the Gospel. We also pray for their hearts that God may work in them. It also relieves us from the burden of trying to change people because, ultimately, only God can.