Several weeks ago, I heard Alistair Begg interviewed regarding a book on prayer.  Something he said has stayed with me since I heard him speak.  I was driving, so I’m recreating the quote from memory.  That being the case, a disclaimer is in order.  A friend of mine has his smart phone set up to add the following statement to every message he sends from it.  “Sent from my smart phone.  Expect typos.”  My disclaimer should read, “Recreated from memory.  Expect modifications from the original.”

Roughly, Alistair said:

"We spend extraordinary amounts of time and energy in prayer trying to keep believers out of heaven, and almost none trying to keep non-believers out of hell."

Think about that.  When we hear that a believer is critically ill, we pray long and hard for his or her healing – as we should.  Even though we believe that they will be much better off if they die and go to heaven, we pray to keep them here – out of heaven.  But, do we pray long and hard for those who are spiritually dead and heading to an eternity apart from God? 

To an extent, this is understandable.  When a person is physically in critical condition, the bad things that appear to be in their future are obvious.  But those who are heading toward spiritual demise don’t always look like there is anything awful looming in their future.  However, in this case perception is NOT reality. 

While I encourage you to pray for physical healing and expect God to answer, my prayer is that God will open our eyes to what awaits those who do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  May He develop a deep passion with in us to consistently plead with God for their salvation.