The longer I’m a Christian, the more I realize how important prayer is and that there’s no shortage of things to pray for! The apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1 Tim. 2:1). Elsewhere believers are told to be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). Whew! That will keep a Christian busy!
Sometimes we don’t know exactly how we should pray, but thank God that the Holy Spirit helps us out in such cases (see Rom. 8:26). But at other times we know exactly how we should pray, because Scripture explicitly tells us.
Such is the case when it comes to sharing the gospel with others. After telling believers in Colossians 4 to “continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (v. 2), Paul goes on to say, “At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on a count of which I am in prison — that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (vv. 3-4). In Ephesians 6, Paul writes, “[pray] also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, … that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (vv. 19-20).
These two corresponding Scriptures lay out some specific prayer items for sharing the gospel:
Opportunity. We need God to “open to us a door for the word.” Most likely, gospel-sharing opportunities will come up in the course of our daily routines as we’re running errands, talking to our neighbors, having lunch with a co-worker or classmate. We will be much more likely to recognize such opportunities to share the gospel if we’re praying for them.
Boldness. It’s one thing to recognize an opportunity, it’s another thing to act on it — to walk through the door that God has opened for the word. If you wait to speak until you feel bold, you’ll fail to take advantage of most opportunities that God sends your way. But if you step through that open door in faith, believing that God will grant you the boldness as you speak, then you will find that he will grant you the courage to do so.
Clarity. Since God wants us to go everywhere in the world and share the gospel with everyone (Mark 16:15) — men and women, girls and boys, rich and poor, educated and uneducated — then the message must be simple. In a sermon titled, “Plain Gospel for Plain People,” Charles Spurgeon quipped, “It should be clear as the sun, and simple as the A-B-C, that they may see it, and then hold it in their memories.” Spurgeon went on to say,
The gospel of our salvation saves the feeble-minded as well as the clever; it reaches the slow and dull as well as the quick and bright. Is it not well it should be so? The Lord has given a gospel which he may grasp who can scarcely grasp anything else.
What if you only had a minute to share the gospel with someone — on your street, in the grocery store, at the gym, or over lunch? That’s what I ask our prospective church members to do — to share the gospel in a minute or less. I got this idea from Mark Dever, who wrote a helpful little book titled, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. To demonstrate his point, here is how Mark summarizes the gospel:
The good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.
Of course, you don’t have to use those exact words. In fact, you might be able to explain the gospel more simply than that! (To read more on this point, read my article, “The Gospel in a Minute.”)
One final note: While it is good to pray each day that God would give us ourselves opportunities, boldness, and clarity for sharing the gospel, we want to pray for our fellow believers in this regard, too. That’s what Paul did in both Scripture passages that I cited above. He wrote, “[pray] for me" (Eph. 6:19) and “pray also for us” (Col. 4:3). Elsewhere Paul wrote to fellow believers, “you help us by praying for us” (2 Cor. 1:11). We think of Paul as a great evangelist and church-planter, and rightly so. But how much of his success was owing to the prayers of many on his behalf? Only God knows.
But what we do know is how to pray for one another with respect to sharing the gospel. Pray for opportunities, for boldness, for clarity.
And let us pray for conversions. “For God, who said, ‘Let light sine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).