Anyone who has spent much time reading this blog or attending church where I lead knows that I have emphasized praying for the lost.

Lee Strobel of The Case for Christ fame spoke Tuesday night at the Louisiana Baptist Convention Evangelism Conference. The Theme of the conference was about imprinting the next generation. Though Lee Strobel did not get to finish his presentation due to a regional power outage, he set the stage for parents, teachers, and pastors to pray for the next generation and to find ways to imprint them with the gospel.

Lee Strobel spoke about the importance of praying for the lost. He himself was the product of someone praying. He noted how his wife had prayed Ezekiel 36:26 over him: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

He also reminded us that Paul had prayed for the lost of the nation of Israel: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer for them is for their salvation” (Romans 10:1).

Then, he summarized the ministry of Jesus by saying, “Before Jesus talked to His neighbor about the Father, He talked to the Father about His neighbor.” If Jesus prayed–and He did–how much more do we need to pray.

Our world needs our prayer. Your neighbors and co-workers need prayer. Can you imagine someone who has never had anyone praying for their soul or their salvation? Can you imagine being in a struggle in life and no one prays for you? Yet, that is the experience of many people.

Lee Strobel suggested that we find simple ways to pray for lost friends, family, and neighbors. He suggested we pray for one lost friend for one minute at one o’clock each day.

I believe God wants to see our concern for the lost by how we pray. He desires to hear the prayers of the saints.

Let us talk to our Father about our neighbor and then let us talk to our neighbor about our Father.