Praying for Non-Christians

Do you pray for specific unbelievers to be saved?

After reading a short section of Augustine's Confession, I was struck with these words that I hope to incorporate into my prayers for unbelievers (if you like, read it in context here ch. 8, para. 12):

"It was pleasing in Your sight to reform my deformity, and by inward stings You didst disturb me so that I was impatient until You were made clear to my inward sight."

I want God to "disturb" the unbelievers I pray for, along with convicting them of "sin, righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8) and putting gospel-sharing believers around them so that He will be made clear to their inward sight, something I think only happens after salvation (cf. Romans 1:18-23, 8:5-8; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 4:17-18).

Augustine on Pride

In the midst of his wrestling with God in his Confessions, Augustine makes this priceless statement about pride:

"By my swelling pride I was separated from You, and my bloated cheeks blinded my eyes" (VII.11).

Can't you just picture an obese man who's eyes squint under the pressure coming up from his inflated cheeks?

Pride not only separates a person from God, but it blinds him to God, blinds him to the separation and blinds him from the fact that it's precisely his pride that has caused this separation.

God, the Truly Satisfying

As Augustine expresses his struggles to submit his heart to God in his Confessions, he gives us a truly remarkable picture of God's drawing and wooing of the unbeliever that helps us share the message of the gospel with wisdom.

This is yet another insightful contribution that gives us a great lesson about the unbelieving heart. Here, in chapter VI, paragraph 16, he wrote,

"Woe to the audacious soul which hoped that by forsaking You it would find some better thing! It tossed and turned, upon back and side and belly—but the bed is hard, and You alone give it rest."

These words remind us of his famous opening line: "for You have made us for Yourself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in You (I.1)"

Thanks to Augustine's read of his own heart, it seems we can say that the unbeliever is hoping that he's coming out ahead by rejecting the gospel. In a cost-benefit analysis, the benefits of the gospel (God declaring you not guilty for your sin, God redeeming you from slavery to sin, God's wrath against you being satisfied, the establishing of a friendship with the King of the Universe, etc.) do not outweigh the benefits they're receiving from remaining in unbelief.

Like Augustine, they think they've found something better than God. Something else has come along and promised them the rest that only the gospel truly gives. Something else seems to satisfy them, fulfill them, speak peace and joy to them.

In the end, whatever the "better thing" is, it ultimately is a counterfeit gospel that gives a counterfeit rest as their life is ultimately being controlled by a counterfeit god who does not satisfy, does not fulfill, and does not give joy and peace. That only comes when a person is connected to the God they were created to be connected to, and that connection only comes from the gospel they've traded in.

You can trust that this dynamic is going on, and our job, with insight from God's Spirit, is to patiently take the time to identify this idol in their heart--whether it's intellectual, emotional, etc.--and seek to wisely pull down that stronghold with the mighty weapons of gospel truth (cf. 2 Cor 10:3-5) in a manner that is gentle, loving, kind, respectful and gracious (cf. Eph 4:15, Col 4:5-6, 2 Tim 2:24-25, 1 Pet 3:15).

As an aside, this is much of the same issue to be dealt with in the believer's struggle with the remaining sin in his own heart. What truly satisfies? What gives true joy? Where will I find rest today? In sin, or the Christ revealed in the gospel.

Confronting Their Lord

This is a terribly insightful chapter from Augustine's Confessions. I'm constantly amazed at how insightful he on his own soul, and how eloquent he is. I understand how this is considered a classic of Western literature, let alone Christian literature. I reprint the chapter in its entirety here for your benefit. He said...

"Meanwhile my sins were being multiplied. My mistress was torn from my side as an impediment to my marriage, and my heart which clung to her was torn and wounded till it bled. And she went back to Africa, vowing to You never to know any other man and leaving with me my natural son by her. But I, unhappy as I was, and weaker than a woman, could not bear the delay of the two years that should elapse before I could obtain the bride I sought. And so, since I was not a lover of wedlock so much as a slave of lust, I procured another mistress—not a wife, of course. Thus in bondage to a lasting habit, the disease of my soul might be nursed up and kept in its vigor or even increased until it reached the realm of matrimony. Nor indeed was the wound healed that had been caused by cutting away my former mistress; only it ceased to burn and throb, and began to fester, and was more dangerous because it was less painful" (VI.15).

This is a man in bondage. He had his mistress, if I remember correctly, for over a decade, but his mother arranged a marriage for him to a very young girl--he says, two years too young.

This was not easy as it tore his heart to bleeding to leave his mistress.

He particularly focuses on her vow not to know another man. He is caught by these words because he couldn't make that kind of commitment. He was trapped by his sin, "a slave of lust." So he got another mistress whose company relieved the burning and throbbing of loosing the first.

As he looks back, he understands that a binding sin in a person's life is a disease of the soul that people "nurse" and "keep in vigor" and even "increase."

It is here that our evangelism must confront a person, as we'll see with Augustine. What is lord? What's going to control / rule their heart? This may take awhile, but we must keep this in mind whenever giving the gospel to a person.

Christian Life: I Did It My Way

Augustine tells of a socialist plan he and his friends conceived that went south as soon as they considered what their wives would think of it in chapter 6, paragraph 14 of his Confessions. His comment on their plans shows the folly of fighting against God's will in our lives.

"...our steps followed the broad and beaten ways of the world; for many thoughts were in our hearts, but "Your counsel stands fast forever." In Your counsel You mocked ours, and prepared Your own plan...."

What plans are you making that more resemble the "ways of the world" than the wisdom of God? Don't know? How well do you know the wisdom of God found in His Word so you can check what kind of plans you have? This is the question I keep asking myself.

Real Objections While Evangelism

Augustine spoke of the steps it took for him to be saved in his Confessions (see an indication of this in Book VI, chap 1 here and my comments on it here).

At the end of chap 11 and at the beginning of chap 12 (see both here) he talks about the real reason why he kept himself from giving his life fully to Christ. He said:

"I delayed my conversion to the Lord; I postponed from day to day the life in thee, but I could not postpone the daily death in myself. I was enamored of a happy life, but I still feared to seek it in its own abode, and so I fled from it while I sought it. I thought I should be miserable if I were deprived of the embraces of a woman, and I never gave a thought to the medicine that thy mercy has provided for the healing of that infirmity, for I had never tried it. As for continence [i.e., self-control], I imagined that it depended on one’s own strength, though I found no such strength in myself."

And...

"I quoted against [Alypius] the examples of men who had been married and still lovers of wisdom, who had pleased God and had been loyal and affectionate to their friends. I fell far short of them in greatness of soul, and, enthralled with the disease of my carnality and its deadly sweetness, I dragged my chain along, fearing to be loosed of it. Thus I rejected the words of him who counseled me wisely, as if the hand that would have loosed the chain only hurt my wound."

Augustine resisted the happiness to be found in Christianity because he was enthralled with the deadly sweetnesses of sexual immorality. This kept him from becoming a Christian after the intellectual hindrances were removed (and, I suspect the reason for his intellectual objections was his love of sexual sin).

Augustine's life reminds us that when doing evangelism there are the dozens of objections a person gives us, and then there are the real ones. Ask God for wisdom to see these through the smoke screens we're so often trying to blow away.

Sin and What We Love

Augustine's Confessions are a masterful look into the life of one man through his incredible ability to describe his thoughts, his desires, his heart to God.

Notice (you can read quote in context here at chapter X.16) how he links temptation to sin with what his friend loves:

There was one matter, however, which appealed to his love of learning, in which he was very nearly led astray.

His friend had a love, a desire for learning that needed to be satisfied. Learning is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with learning.

However, it was this good thing that was used by his flesh to almost cause him to stumble, which would've ruined the integrity Augustine was describing previously.

Lesson: Be careful. Even good desires can be used as a motivation for sin. Watch out for this. Thanks again Augustine.

Sin as Medicine

In Augustine's Confessions (Book 6, paragraph 9), he makes this very insightful statement about how past sin can be used for future good in the heart and life of his friend Alypius:

"But this was all being stored up in his memory as medicine for the future."

The "this" is referring to Alypius' fall into temptation after he trusted in his own wit, ability and power to fight the sins of going to and enjoying the gladiatorial games (click here to read Augustine's recounting of Alypius' "this").

I did some Bible study on Proverb 11:2 today where the first line reads "When pride comes, then comes dishonor." Alypius' dishonor, his falling into sin and temptation--even before his watching and unbelieving friends, let alone his watching God--came as a result of his pride.

However, when we fall into sin Augustine tells us how we can use past sin, not to further condemn ourselves which is what we typically do, but to fight it. Used wisely, this sin could become, and Augustine was sure it would become, "medicine" to fight future infections of pride in Alypius' heart.

Think of your most recent sin. Got it? Now, picture yourself walking into the same situation again. I hate thinking of this, but its important. Augustine taught his friend and is teaching us 1600 years later that past sins can fight future sins. A fall in the past can keep us from falling in the future. Use past sins to fortify you against future sins, which over time works to kill sin in our hearts.

In a word from those funny Guinness commercials, Augustine is "Brilliant!"

Temptation's Deceit

Listen to this brilliant description of how temptation takes a Christian captive (with the help of unbelieving friends) from Augustine's Confessions. I give you the entry in its entirety here. It is from book 6, and it is worth taking the 2 minutes to read and another 10 at least to meditate on and apply to your own sin matrix.

He is in the middle of describing a friend of his when he writes...

He had gone on to Rome before me to study law—which was the worldly way which his parents were forever urging him to pursue—and there he was carried away again with an incredible passion for the gladiatorial shows. For, although he had been utterly opposed to such spectacles and detested them, one day he met by chance a company of his acquaintances and fellow students returning from dinner; and, with a friendly violence, they drew him, resisting and objecting vehemently, into the amphitheater, on a day of those cruel and murderous shows. He protested to them: "Though you drag my body to that place and set me down there, you cannot force me to give my mind or lend my eyes to these shows. Thus I will be absent while present, and so overcome both you and them." When they heard this, they dragged him on in, probably interested to see whether he could do as he said. When they got to the arena, and had taken what seats they could get, the whole place became a tumult of inhuman frenzy. But Alypius kept his eyes closed and forbade his mind to roam abroad after such wickedness. Would that he had shut his ears also! For when one of the combatants fell in the fight, a mighty cry from the whole audience stirred him so strongly that, overcome by curiosity and still prepared (as he thought) to despise and rise superior to it no matter what it was, he opened his eyes and was struck with a deeper wound in his soul than the victim whom he desired to see had been in his body. Thus he fell more miserably than the one whose fall had raised that mighty clamor which had entered through his ears and unlocked his eyes to make way for the wounding and beating down of his soul, which was more audacious than truly valiant—also it was weaker because it presumed on its own strength when it ought to have depended on You. For, as soon as he saw the blood, he drank in with it a savage temper, and he did not turn away, but fixed his eyes on the bloody pastime, unwittingly drinking in the madness—delighted with the wicked contest and drunk with blood lust. He was now no longer the same man who came in, but was one of the mob he came into, a true companion of those who had brought him thither. Why need I say more? He looked, he shouted, he was excited, and he took away with him the madness that would stimulate him to come again: not only with those who first enticed him, but even without them; indeed, dragging in others besides. And yet from all this, with a most powerful and most merciful hand, You plucked him and taught him not to rest his confidence in himself but in You—but not till long after.

Augustine has an uncanny ability to diagnose the methods sin uses to deceive us. What a blessing he is for all who'll read and meditate on what he says!

Lesson: NEVER trust in your own ability to beat sin. The moment you do, not only to do you commit the sin of pride, but you set yourself up to further commit the sin you think you can beat without the Spirit's power.

Nothing New in Evangelism

I'm reading Augustine's Confessions, and in chapter 6 he's talking about the steps he went through to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Click the post's title to read the quotes in chapter 5, paragraph 7.

First, he says "those men were not to be listened to who would say to me, 'How do you know that those Scriptures were imparted to mankind by the Spirit of the one and most true God?'" I found it interesting that this is the same issue being brought against Christians some 1600 years after Augustine. Nothing is new under the sun.

Also, for those who won't believe it unless they see it, think about this: "O Lord, little by little, with a gentle and most merciful hand, drawing and calming my heart, You persuaded me that, if I took into account the multitude of things I had never seen, nor been present when they were enacted—such as many of the events of secular history; and the numerous reports of places and cities which I had not seen; or such as my relations with many friends, or physicians, or with these men and those—that unless we should believe, we should do nothing at all in this life. Finally, I was impressed with what an unalterable assurance I believed which two people were my parents, though this was impossible for me to know otherwise than by hearsay."

I remember talking to a guy who told me "Until Jesus walks up to me and tells me Himself who He is, I will not believe in Him. It's just blind faith." I responded, "Are you going to get home tonight?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "How do you know?" He paused, and said, "You got me. I have faith that I'll get home tonight, but I don't know." I said, "Right, and your rejection of Christ is like sitting outside your car saying 'I don't know if I'm going to get home, so I'm not getting in.'"

There were at least two problems with this guy. First, he made the distinction between faith and knowledge, and second, he forgot that no one can function without exercising faith. History is impossible without faith. I have faith that places like Antarctica exists, and that the maps are true, even though I've never been there. I have faith that what my friends say about their lives are true, though I wasn't there. I have faith that my burger is beef, and not beef mixed with manure like the movie Fast Food Nation is going to show.

We can't live this life without faith, and we won't live in the next life without faith...in Christ alone, and not myself or any other "savior," to rescue me from God's holy wrath for my sins and usher me into heaven.

Struggling to Believe

This entry from Augustine's Confessions is so helpful in understanding a person's journey to putting their full and complete trust / confidence in Christ, and the message of the Bible, to save them from their sins.

I've edited the full entry, so if you'd like to read the whole thing click here, and scroll down to chapter IV, paragraph 6. Augustine wrote:

"I was also glad that the old Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets were laid before me to be read, not now with an eye to what had seemed absurd in them when formerly I censured Your holy ones for thinking thus, when they actually did not think in that way. ... I found nothing in [Ambrose'] teachings that offended me, though I could not yet know for certain whether what he taught was true. For all this time I restrained my heart from assenting to anything, fearing to fall headlong into error. Instead, by this hanging in suspense, I was being strangled. For my desire was to be as certain of invisible things as I was that seven and three are ten. I was not so deranged as to believe that this could not be comprehended [like so many are today], but my desire was to have other things as clear as this ... But, just as it happens that a man who has tried a bad physician fears to trust himself with a good one, so it was with the health of my soul, which could not be healed except by believing. But lest it should believe falsehoods, it refused to be cured, resisting Your hand, who has prepared for us the medicines of faith and applied them to the maladies of the whole world, and endowed them with such great efficacy."

Think deeply about his experience, and how it relates to those you're trying to see the truth of the gospel.

Alcohol & Hating Truth

In the Confessions, Book VI, chapter 2, Augustine describes the enjoyment of alcohol as a very common barrier to the gospel. While describing his mother's practice of honoring dead saints while drinking wine he commented that her love of wine did not "stimulate her to hate the truth, as it does too many, both male and female." You can read the quote in context by clicking the title of this post above.

His language is so strong, and it even seems he might be shocked by the fact that his mother didn't hate the truth though she loved wine, as if loving wine and hating truth went hand-in-hand in everyone except her. She was an admirable exception to the general rule?

When I think of hindrances to the truth, I think of intellectual or moral barriers (i.e., sex, money, power, etc.), but thanks to Augustine we need to add alcohol to the list of barriers keeping people from embracing the gospel.

As someone who spent many Friday nights out at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica doing street evangelism, I can concur with Augustine. Alcohol, more often than not, seems to have a deadening effect on the spiritual sensitivities of people whom at other times are quite reasonable. This was true of a guy named Mike who I talked to many times. When he was sober, he'd listen and even came very close to embracing the gospel on night, but when he'd been drinking, he wasn't worth talking to.

Do you have any further insights into what Augustine's saying here? Let me know.

Steps to Victory in Evangelism

Evangelism is often completed in stages, as in the life of Augustine (see Confessions, Book VI, chapter 1).

Augustine's mother Monica (the person the city Santa Monica is named after) is famous for praying that God would save him. When he told her that he had left some false teachings (i.e., the Manicheans), he comments that "though I had not yet grasped the truth, I was rescued from falsehood." She had been assured by God that her son would come to faith, which he says is why she was not "agitated with any violent exultation" upon him leaving that heresy.

This episode illustrates an important principle in evangelism: Victory is not just found when someone embraces the gospel--though, of course, that is the goal we pray and work and reason with them for. Just getting someone to disbelieve a lie that was previously a barrier to their coming to salvation is something to exult over too because it is also proof that God is using you in their life.

So, unless God gives you the kind of insight about the person you're trying to evangelize as He gave St. Monica, thank Him for all of the step-by-step victories He gives before bringing a person all the way to saving faith, just like He did with Augustine.

Postmoderns are Pre-Modern

In the middle of the last chapter of the Confessions, Book V, I came across this line as Augustine (354-430 AD) is describing his struggle committing to or leaving the Manicheans: "the method of the Academics—doubting everything and fluctuating between all the options" (V.14:25). [If you want to read the quote in context, click the title above.]

The intelligencia of his day both doubted everything and were a shifting shadow "between all options." Hmm.... Doubting everything...? Waffling among all points of view...? These pre-moderns sound awfully, um, post-modern. Maybe postmodernism isn't all that "post" after all.

What do you think? Leave a comment.