Renew Your Passion to Pray for the Lost: 5 Thoughts from George Mueller
George Mueller
Are you praying for loved ones to come to know Jesus Christ? Is your diligence in prayer growing weak? As we continue praying in concert today, I feel that someone is in need of encouragement in their prayer for the salvation of loved ones.
How Do I Pray for Lost Loved Ones shares a powerful story of encouragement, with specific scriptures to pray and promises to plead when praying for the lost. It contains a moving account from Peter Lord’s 2959 Plan. If you haven’t yet read this article, please do. It will change the way you pray for the lost.
God gave the apostle Paul and his prayer life as an example for Christians of all time. Similarly, He has given modern-day Christians the example of George Mueller as proof to His church that He still hears and answers prayer.
Mr. Mueller started 117 schools, raised thousands of children, gave away 250,000 Bibles, and in today’s currency, raised the equivalent of millions of dollars without ever expressing a need to a human being or ever being in debt. It was all accomplished through prayer.
Mr. Mueller also believed that more than thirty thousand souls came to know Christ in answer to prayer. These didn’t include only orphans but also many others for whom he prayed faithfully every day, in some cases for more than 50 years.
“In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals,” Mr. Mueller said. “I prayed every day without a single intermission….” [1]
Eighteen months passed before the first was saved. Five years lapsed, then the second was converted. Six years passed before the third was converted. The last two remained unconverted.
Pastor Charles R. Parsons, in an hour interview with George Mueller towards the close of his life, asked him if he spent much time on his knees. Mueller replied, “I have been praying every day for fifty-two years for two men, sons of a friend of my youth. They are not converted yet, but they will be! How can it be otherwise?” [2]
Mr. Mueller not only prayed for the conversion of lost souls, he prayed in firm faith, confident they would be saved. When he was asked on what ground he so firmly believed this, his answer was, “There are five conditions which I always endeavor to fulfill; in observing which I have the assurance of answer to my prayer:
1. I have not the least doubt because I am assured that it is the Lord’s will to save them, for he willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (see 1 Tim. 2.4); and we have the assurance ‘that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us’ (1 John 5.14).
2. I have never pleaded for their salvation in my own name, but in the blessed name of my precious Lord Jesus, and on his merits alone (see John 14.14).
3. I always firmly believed in the willingness of God to hear my prayers (Mark 11:24).
4. I am not conscious of having yielded to any sin, for ‘if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me’ when I call (Ps. 66:18).
5. I have persevered in believing prayer for more than fifty-two years for some, and shall continue till the answer comes: ‘Shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him?’ (Luke 18.7). [3]
Mr. Mueller went to Heaven praying firmly in faith, thanking God in advance, for the salvation of those for whom he was praying. Within months of his passing, the last friend on his prayer list was converted. God answers prayer!
Concert of Prayer — Praying for the Lost
1. What friend or relative’s salvation are you praying for daily? If no one, ask God to bring someone to mind for whom you can begin praying in faith.
2. If you have been burdened for some time about a loved one’s salvation, have you been harboring even the thinnest shred of doubt? It is God’s will that all men come to the knowledge of the truth. When we pray according to God’s will, He hears us! Refuse to doubt!
3. Are you conscious of yielding to any sin? If so, repent and be cleansed.
4. Have you grown weary in well doing? Have the intensity and frequency of your prayers diminished over time? “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? (Lu. 18:7, NIV) Persevere in prayer: “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Ga. 6:9).
5. What kinds of words are you speaking regarding God’s answer to your prayer? George Mueller continually spoke according to what God’s word promised regarding the salvation of his friends.
- God “gives life to the dead and speaks of the non-existent things that He has foretold and promised as if they already existed” (Romans 4:17, AMPC).
- Paul said, “I believed; therefore I have spoken. With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak” (2 Cor. 4:13). We are to speak as God does, saying the same thing with our mouths that He says in His word…even when it sounds ridiculous. God spoke in advance of things that were true in the spiritual realm but were a mere “promise” in the natural realm. We are to do the same — speak as if it already exists.
Mueller on Faith:
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:1).
“What is faith? In the simplest manner in which I am able to express it, I answer: Faith is the assurance that the thing which God has said in His Word is true, and that God will act according to what He has said in His Word. This assurance, this reliance on God’s Word, this confidence is faith.
No impressions are to be taken in connection with faith. Impressions have neither one thing nor the other to do with faith. Faith has to do with the Word of God. It is not impressions, strong or weak, which will make any difference.
We have to do with the written Word and not ourselves ourselves or our impressions.
Probabilities are not to be taken into account. Many people are willing to believe regarding those things that seem probable to them. Faith has nothing to do with probabilities. The province of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail. A great many of God’s children are cast down and lament their want of faith. They write to me and say that they have no impressions, no feeling, they see no probability that the thing they wish will come to pass. Appearances are not to be taken into account. The question is—whether God has spoken it in His Word. [4]
Question: How is your prayer life regarding the lost going to be different starting today?
RELATED ARTICLES:
OTHER ARTICLES ON PRAYER:
- Get Alone With God: The Religion of the Closet
- Prayer Is a Two-Way Conversation
- Don’t Get in a Hurry in the Prayer Closet
- Praying With Heaven and Earth at Your Disposal
- Prayer Is an Invitation to Experience God’s Boundlessness
- Satan Trembles When He Sees the Weakest Saint Praying
- Drawing Near: Treasuring Communion (Part One)
- Drawing Near: Treasuring Communion (Part Two)
- Reigning Through Prayer, Part One: Jesus, the Interceding Ruler
- Reigning Through Prayer, Part Two: Joining Jesus at the Throne of Intercession
- Kings and Priests—Praying with Authority
- I Will Run to You: A Prayer of Pursuit
- Holy Abandon
- Persisting in Secret Prayer
- Why Is It So Hard for Christians to Pray? (David Wilkerson Sermon)
- The Touch of God – Moses: Sermon by David Wilkerson
- “A Call to Anguish” by David Wilkerson
- Training to Pray With Great Power
- Bite-Size Encouragements to Being a Person of Prayer
- Perfect Solitude: Following Our Master’s Steps
- Andrew Murray on Prayerlessness and God’s Holiness
- Prayer for Revival Cannot Be Answered Until…
- Come Up and Wait
- The Gospel of Prayer (by Leonard Ravenhill)
- Desperate Prayer by Leonard Ravenhill
- God Answers Prayer
- The Power of Prayer
- Your Father Gives Good Gifts
- God Answers Desperate, Persistent Prayer
- Waiting Expectantly: Praying in Hope When Times Seem Hopeless
- Waging War With Your Promise
- God Promised: Do I Still Pray About It?
- How Do I Pray for Lost Loved Ones?
- Renew Your Passion to Pray for the Lost: 5 Thoughts from George Mueller
- Finding a Quiet Hour to Connect With Heaven
- Begin Your Prayers With Praise
- What Will You Do With Your Arrows
- The Mind-Blowing Mystery and Privilege of Prayer: Francis Chan Sermon
- Resources to Encourage You in Prayer: Sermons, Webcast, and Prayer Journal Apps
Articles on Praying for the Nation
- Praying for Government Leaders (Part 1): A Prayer for the President
- Praying for Government Leaders (Part 2): A Prayer Guide
- Praying for Government Leaders (3): A Guide to Praying for Your Country
- For The Nation
- For The Little Ones
- Praying for our Government
- President Lincoln’s Proclamations for Fasting and Prayer
- America’s Founders and Presidents: Proclamations for Public Fasting and Prayer
- Fasts Proclaimed by American Government Leaders
- Fasting Day 14: Fasting Affects a Nation
- Fasting Day 7: Where is the Glory?
- National Revival in America: It Comes Down to You and Me
- America’s Only Hope: Why Aren’t We Utilizing It
- Interceding for America: Two Points in Prayer
- National Day of Prayer: Why Pray?
________________
- George Mueller, quoted in Basil Miller, George Muller (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 1941), 145
- Parsons, Charles R., An Hour With George Müller (Kindle Location 75). Chapel Library. Kindle Edition.
- Murray, Andrew, The Prayer Life (p. 65-66). Unknown. Kindle Edition.
- Parsons, Charles R., An Hour With George Müller (Kindle Locations 222-231).
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Thank you for the profound teaching on faith. I am totally encouraged, especially by reading testimonies about George Mueller’s persistence in praying for the lost. Thank you for allowing God to use you.
I truly believe God answers prayer and I have believed Him for His grace and divine enablement to embark on a long journey of prayer and fasting.