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Few would deny the importance of prayer in evangelism. Yet in practice, evangelism can drift towards strategy and self-reliance. There may be a polite acknowledgment of dependence at the beginning or the end, but scripture teaches us that the gospel sprints on its knees.​​

 

salvation belongs to lord

 

At the heart of the relationship between prayer and evangelism is a theological conviction: salvation belongs to the Lord (Jonah 2:9). If conversion ultimately depended on human eloquence, cultural insight, or persuasive power, prayer would be optional. But if the human heart is spiritually dead (Eph 2:1), blind to the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:4), and resistant to God (Rom 8:7), then evangelism must begin with God.

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Prayer is the natural posture of those who believe this. When we pray, we are confessing that only God can open blind eyes, soften hard hearts, and grant repentance and faith (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim 2:25). Far from discouraging evangelistic effort, this conviction fuels it. We speak because God works—and we pray because without him, nothing happens.

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Jesus and PrayeR

 

Jesus himself models the close connection between prayer and proclamation. Before selecting the Twelve—those who would be his primary witnesses—he spends the night in prayer (Luke 6:12–13). Before feeding the crowds who would later hear his teaching, he gives thanks (John 6:11). In Gethsemane, on the eve of the cross that secures the gospel message itself, Jesus prays in agony as he submits to his Father's will (Matt 26:36–46).

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In Matthew 9, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray evangelistically, grounding prayer in the fact that God is the lord of the harvest “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matt 9:38).

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ACTS AND Prayer

 

In Acts, the gospel advances on its knees. Before Pentecost, the believers are “devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14). The Spirit comes not to a strategic planning session, but to a prayer meeting. When persecution threatens to silence the apostles, the church does not pray for safety, but for boldness in proclamation—and God answers by shaking the building and filling them afresh with the Spirit (Acts 4:23–31).

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Paul AND Prayer

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Paul’s letters echo the same pattern. He repeatedly asks churches to pray for his evangelistic ministry: that doors would be opened (Col 4:3), that words would be given (Eph 6:19), and that the message would spread rapidly and be honoured (2 Thess 3:1). For Paul, prayer is not a substitute for evangelism, nor evangelism a substitute for prayer. They are inseparable.​​

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The praying church

 

When a church prays regularly for unbelievers to be saved, evangelism ceases to be the responsibility of a few keen individuals and becomes the shared burden of the whole body. 

 

Prayer keeps evangelism from becoming a burden the church can't carry because it anchors the entire process in dependence on God, who is full of mercy and grace.

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Prayer and evangelism are not competitors for the church’s attention. They are partners in God’s saving work. We pray because God gives life, and in the mystery of his sovereignty, God has chosen to advance the gospel on its knees.