Preparing the Soil — How the Family of God Prays for the Lost

This week at Woodlawn, something simple but significant has begun stirring again.

The same Word that’s been forming us these past few months has started pressing a new burden on our hearts—a deep desire to see our friends, our children, and our families come to know Christ.

People keep asking, “What do we do now?”

We’ve learned how to pray biblically, how to confess and reconcile, how to build on the Word. But what about the people we love who still seem far away from the gospel? How do we pray for them?

That’s the question I want us to sit with for a while.

Not as a formula, but as a fellowship—because the answer touches everything we’ve learned so far about Scripture, faith, obedience, and love.

God Alone Gives Life

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).

Those words humble us right down to the bone. They strip away every illusion that we can argue or charm someone into salvation.  The Father must draw them.  That’s what the Reformers called effectual calling—the sovereign work of God in regeneration.

Paul explained it this way: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

You and I can sow the Word and water it with prayer, but only God can make it grow. The Westminster Confession says it beautifully:

“All those whom God hath predestinated unto life… He is pleased, in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call by His Word and Spirit” (10.1).

So, when we pray for the lost, we are not trying to convince a reluctant God. We’re aligning ourselves with His redeeming heart. We are asking Him to do what He loves to do—to awaken hearts, to open blind eyes, and to bring dead souls to life.

That’s the starting point of every evangelistic prayer.

We’re not begging Him to care; we’re joining Him in His care.

Praying for the Soil

When Jesus told the parable of the sower in Luke 8, He described four kinds of soil. Only one produced fruit—the heart that “heard the word, held it fast, and bore fruit with patience.”

That’s what we’re praying for when we intercede for others. We’re asking God to prepare that kind of soil. We can’t till the ground of another heart, but we can ask the One who can.

When we pray, we’re asking for very specific miracles:

1. Conviction of sin.

   Jesus said the Spirit “will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).  We pray that false peace would be disturbed, that conscience would awaken, and that guilt would lead not to despair but to repentance.

2. Illumination of Christ’s beauty.

   Paul said, “God… has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).  We ask that they would see Christ—not as a concept, but as a treasure.

3. Granting of repentance and faith.

   Paul told Timothy that God “may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25).  We pray that God would give that gift freely and fully.

4. Fruit that lasts.

   Jesus said, “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16).  We pray not for quick emotion but for genuine transformation.

Friend, this is not mechanical praying; it’s pleading with the Lord of the harvest to breathe life into soil we cannot reach.

The Church Works the Field Together

Paul urged the Philippians, “Stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).

That’s what it looks like when the Church becomes a family in mission.

Evangelism is not an individual calling—it’s the shared labor of the body of Christ.  The 1689 Confession calls this the communion of saints:

“Saints by profession are bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification” (27.2).

When the Church prays together for the lost, unity deepens.  Love matures.  The Spirit aligns hearts that might otherwise never agree.  And when a church is united in prayer, its witness becomes powerful.

That’s why Acts 4:31 always moves me: “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness.”

Prayer shook the walls because the Spirit was shaking His people awake.

Love as the Proof of the Gospel

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

That’s not a slogan; it’s a strategy from heaven.  The world identifies the real Church not by how loudly we argue truth, but by how faithfully we embody love.

John wrote, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers” (1 John 3:14). Love is not the cause of salvation—it’s the evidence.

If we want our prayers for the lost to be heard, we must first be sure our love for one another is alive.  The soil of evangelism is cultivated by forgiveness, patience, humility, and service.  When we harbor bitterness in the Church, we choke the roots of our own mission.

Love within the Church is the living illustration of the gospel we’re asking others to believe.

How to Pray for the Lost

Prayer for the lost has a rhythm, almost like breathing in faith and exhaling hope.

Begin with worship.  Remember who God is—the sovereign Redeemer who delights to save.  That protects prayer from despair.

Move to intercession.  Ask God to do four things in those you love: convict, illuminate, grant repentance, and produce fruit.

Add yourself to the prayer.  Ask the Lord to use you as part of His answer—to give you words, compassion, and boldness.  Jesus told us to pray for laborers, and often He makes us one of them (Matthew 9:37–38).

End with trust.  Psalm 126:5 says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.”  The tears are real; the joy is promised.

Keep sowing. Keep weeping. Keep trusting.

Hope Rising in the Field

I believe God is teaching us that prayer and doctrine belong together.  Truth shapes how we pray, and prayer keeps truth alive in us.  When a church learns to pray for the lost, the Spirit begins to renew the saved.

The same God who called us out of darkness is still calling others—and He invites us to take part in the work.  Our role is not to produce results but to persevere in love and obedience.  The harvest is His.  The labor is ours.  The joy is shared.

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.”  That promise hasn’t expired.  It belongs to every church, every family, every believer who keeps praying when the field still looks barren.

Closing Reflection

Friend, this is where doctrine meets devotion.  The sovereignty of God doesn’t make prayer unnecessary; it makes it unstoppable.  The more deeply we believe that God alone can save, the more fervently we ask Him to do it.

So let’s keep praying for the soil—together, faithfully, and with love.  Let’s live in such unity that the world cannot doubt that Christ is among us.  And let’s trust that every seed planted in prayer will one day break the surface in praise.

Father, prepare the hearts of those we love.  Till the ground in us first.  Let Your Church at Woodlawn—and everywhere—be known for love that prays, truth that speaks, and faith that waits for You to bring the growth.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

-Justin Reed

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