One of the greatest things that will drive us to pray earnestly and desperately is the need for boldness in sharing the gospel. I’m not talking about in-your-face loud obnoxious boldness. That’s usually not helpful at all. But even the call to gently and respectfully share the gospel with someone requires a certain supernatural boldness.
One of the reasons our prayer drive is low sometimes is that we have gotten away from sharing the gospel. Especially in our culture, where there exists an almost subterranean hostility to the gospel, it’s easy to just be quiet about it. When we bring up Jesus, well, people get awkward. They nervously change the subject. They might even get angry and offended, as though we just insulted their mother or something. Preaching the gospel to people can put a strain on our relationship with them. It might even cause a falling out. It’s understandable why we fall into keeping our religion to ourselves.
Call and cost
But we know deep down that we can’t be silent. We know that we are called to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We know that we are called to rescue the perishing and save those staggering toward death. We know that people who are lost are not just going to magically figure out the gospel—unless someone tells them!
For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" —Romans 10:13-15
Sharing the gospel is costly. In some cultures around the world sharing the gospel is much more costly than just social discomfort. Christians are arrested, imprisoned, beaten and even killed. If we are tempted to keep quiet, I’m sure they are tempted even more so.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because the conviction to share the gospel with people who are spiritually lost has a way of dramatically increasing our need for God. When we get away from this conviction we quickly find that our motivation to pray shrivels. Our prayers become kind of repetitious and boring.
How we run
What I’m talking about, specifically, is our call from the Lord to share Christ in our relational circles like work, family, extended family, friends, the gym, school, and so on. Again, I’m not saying we should be like clanging cymbals without love and vomiting the gospel on people. It requires wisdom. But sometimes we are so “wise” that we never share anything! Fishing requires patience and skill but one thing for sure is that unless we throw the line into the water we aren’t going to catch anything. Fish don’t usually jump into the boat by themselves.
It’s almost like we’re waiting for the perfect situation. We will share the gospel when someone expresses a great interest in Jesus. We share the gospel only when the door opens up beautifully. We share only if we are absolutely sure the person is receptive. But what we are actually doing is protecting ourselves from social discomfort. This has a way of making our spiritual life dull and our prayers dry.
Fear as fuel
When we take on the biblical mandate to share Christ with the world—something amazing happens to us. There may be certain naturally bold personalities who don’t experience this, but, for the rest of us, we are terrified of sharing the gospel—the way I was terrified in grade school giving oral reports in front of the whole class. I dreaded that! My knees would knock and my hands would tremble.
Most of us—if we are honest—would admit that we are afraid to share the gospel with certain people in our lives. In some cases, it would feel like social suicide. We might lose credibility within our academic circle. We would be viewed as crazy or extreme. We would no longer be considered cool, progressive, relevant. We would be canceled like a bad tv show.
The thing we can’t get away from as we read the Word, though, is that we are clearly called to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go. The Lord has not given us the luxury of protecting ourselves by keeping our religion private. To be a Christian is to be a light in the world. To be a Christian is to be a messenger.
Shy
I know I know, it’s daunting. For those of us who are shy it’s downright overwhelming. For those of us who would rather die than say anything that might disturb relational peace, this call to proclaim Jesus is terrifying. I get it, seriously, I am very shy. Those who have only seen me preaching or doing outreaches don’t think I’m shy at all. That’s because you are seeing me filled with the Spirit. Trust me, that’s not me. Apart from God’s Spirit I would not say much, and I definitely would not want to say anything that would produce tension.
Here’s the beautiful thing. When we take on the call to share Christ with those around us God has placed in our lives, we will find that we are driven to pray with intensity. I have experienced this so many times.
Brown professors
When I was a Bible School student, a group of us went to a busy street near Brown University to engage people with the Gospel. We were terrified young kids, sometimes talking with Ivy League professors. We prayed with desperation beforehand—and often on the drive to the city—that God would flow through us. We knew that on our own we would be afraid and totally ineffective.
But it’s not just a ministry outing that drives us to pray with intensity. When the Lord starts prodding us to share Christ with our coworkers or with family members, we are stricken with a sense of fear and inadequacy. But we pray like crazy for boldness from God to say what He wants us to say. The very idea of sharing with certain people will greatly intensify our praying.
Some of you might understand this principle because you’ve gone on a mission trip. Suddenly you are out of your comfort zone. Most mission trips are directed, and you just need to do whatever the director wants you to do. You know that you may be called upon to share your testimony. Or you may be sent into the neighborhoods of the little Nicaraguan village to invite people to a worship event. These realities are scary and they have a way of moving us to pray.
Chicken
When I lived in NYC I was about 22 years old and a brand new Christian. This might seem crazy to you, but I felt a very strong impression from God that He wanted me to preach the gospel open-air in the crowded 42nd Street subway station. Oh man. Remember, I’m shy. Very shy. This was back in 1990 and open-air preachers were all over the city. Because there are so many people from all over the world—some from countries closed to the gospel—there were always people who listened intently.
Well, like Jonah, I ran from doing this. This was just too much for God to ask a shy kid like me preach in the biggest city in the country. And in the 42nd Street station! No way. For months I would not do it. We used to have these coffee mugs with farm animal graphics on them, and I told my wife to give me only the one with the chicken on it, because that’s what I am—a chicken! As time went on I realized I wasn’t going to be able to change the subject with the Lord so I came to grips that I just needed to do it.
Suddenly, my prayer life was charged with 1000 volts of electricity. I was praying with urgency—out of terror—that God would enable me to do this. For weeks I prayed and prayed until I finally realized I needed to just step into it. I had a powerful prayer time in my apartment and trekked down to 42nd Street and looked around. What? No way! I’m not doing this. Fear gripped me again. I paced back and forth praying in my mind for two hours as though my very life depended on it. Finally, I couldn’t keep it in anymore and opened my mouth and said, “The day will come when all the dead, great and small, will stand before the Lord at the judgment” (Rev 20).
Dull to desperate
What I’m trying to say is that when you take on the call of God to share Christ publicly it will transform your prayer life from dull to intense in a flash. I’m not telling you to open-air preach. That was a unique thing God wanted me to do that might have been more of a test than it was an effective method. But think about the people in your spheres: neighbors, coworkers, classmates, friends, family, and so on. Take up your cross and follow Jesus into rejection. Don’t let yourself off the hook from sharing Christ with them. If you don’t do it, who will? You are placed by God in that person’s life for a reason. You are a light.
Once you come to grips with the mandate to share Christ with lost people, trust me, you will pray differently. You will cry from the depths. Don’t just sort of casually come to grips with this and say to God, “Yeah, okay, well, I’ll try to be open to sharing on occasion.” Rather, tell yourself, “I must share.” It’ll catapult you into desperate prayer. Put yourself into uncomfortable situations and watch what it does to your prayer life. Get on the schedule to preach at the Rescue Mission. Go out into the busy streets of the city and engage people. Preach in the prisons. Send a letter or make a call to someone. Serve at a prayer booth at a gospel festival. Decide you are going to share with a housemate.
I was asked one time to share my story to the entire Alvarez High School in Providence in their school assembly. I knew many of the kids in the school. It has a reputation for being a rough place where only 50% would graduate. In preparing for that I could envision the scene of hundreds of kids staring at me like I’m trying to get them to buy encyclopedias. I cried my eyes out praying for that!
How we live
Hopefully, by now, you are seeing that many of the things that cause prayer to soar do not even happen during our times of prayer. Having a deep intense prayer life isn’t a matter of just spending a solid concentrated block of time daily and praying a certain way. It’s what we do when we aren’t praying that affects our prayer life. It’s how we live. It’s carefully guarding our hearts. It’s being generous. It’s serving others. It’s partnering with Christ to share the gospel. These kinds of things put wind in our sail. They cause prayer to come alive. Make God’s mission to reconcile people to Himself your mission, and you will find your prayers naturally increasing in intensity.