Can we pray someone into salvation?
(And if not, how should that affect our prayers?)
“Simon Magus Offering St. Peter Money for the Conferring of the Holy Spirit,” painted around 1470 by Liberale de Verona. The story comes from Acts 8:18-24. According to the text, Simon had already believed and received baptism (8:13) before this misbehavior. Do you think Peter had been praying for Simon’s salvation? (Source: The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.)
Sometimes we do things without thinking, just because everybody does it. Today, I will challenge one spiritual practice that virtually all Christians do.
Christians often pray, or ask others to pray, that unsaved loved ones may come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. That’s a good thing. Leading others to know God should be a high priority in our lives. However, I am not aware of any passage of Scripture that encourages us to pray for the salvation of specific individuals, or of any instance in the Bible in which someone prayed in that way.
Now, before you become too alarmed—I am not asking you to stop praying for loved ones. The Bible tells us to cast all our cares upon God (1 Peter 5:7), and the spiritual state of people we love is certainly an important care. And if God wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), it wouldn’t seem bad to ask for God’s help in leading others toward salvation.
But I still wonder if we need to reconsider how we approach these prayers.
The Bible contains many prayers for expansion of the kingdom of God. For example:
Jesus told his followers to make disciples (Matthew 28:19).
Jesus told his followers to pray for more missionaries (Matthew 9:38).
The apostles asked for boldness to share the gospel, and for signs and wonders to back up their message (Acts 4:29–30),
Paul asked believers to pray for his fruitfulness in ministry (Romans 15:31; Colossians 4:4).
The apostles urged believers to be well prepared for effective evangelism (Colossians 4:5–6; 1 Peter 3:15–16).
Simon the magician, after being rebuked for seeking to buy miracle-working power, asked Peter to pray that nothing bad would happen to him (Acts 8:24). Peter did not need to pray for Simon’s salvation at this point, because Acts 8:13 says Simon had already believed and been baptized (unless it is possible for baptized people to lose their salvation). But there is no sign that Peter prayed for Simon’s salvation at any time.
1 Timothy 2:1–4 urges us to pray for people in authority so that they will permit believers to live quiet lives and share the gospel.
But these examples focus on the faithfulness of believers, not the response of specific unbelievers. As for an example of one person praying, by name, for another person to be saved anywhere in the Bible, I’m still looking.
Since my knowledge is limited, I asked for help from a source of unlimited knowledge: Google AI. I entered the words “prayer for people’s salvation in the Bible.” In response, Google AI offered me some creative Scripture-derived prayers for people’s salvation, such as this one based on 2 Corinthians 4:4–6: “Lord, remove the veil from [Name]’s mind, that they may see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” But in each case, the prayer was AI’s invention; the original Bible passages are simply descriptive and contain no such prayers.
AI also reminded me of Acts 16:31, where Paul and Silas tell the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Some have misinterpreted this verse to imply that if I believe in Jesus, that will somehow guarantee my whole household’s salvation. In any case, there is still no prayer for someone else to be saved.
Why does all this matter? Because when people pray for something not promised to them and don’t receive it—especially if they wrongly believe that what they want has indeed been promised to them—they often lose hope or even turn away from God.
Many of us have spent years praying for friends to come to God and have not seen any change. I am not telling you to stop praying for them, but maybe you need to pray differently. Rather than acting as if your prayers can somehow override their will, entrust them to God’s loving care and pray that you will be an enticing, endearing minister of God’s love to them. That prayer will be answered; how your friends respond is between them and God.
In C. S. Lewis’s classic fantasy The Great Divorce, people mired in hell take a bus ride to heaven to see if they’d prefer to live there. (They all decide to go back, consistent with Lewis’s conception that all people who are in hell have chosen to go there.) One of the bus riders visits his earthly wife in heaven. She would still like him to join her, but her infinite joy cannot be reduced by her earthly spouse’s decision.
While we are on earth, our desire for others to know God may appropriately drive us to fervent prayer. We should mourn for the tragedy of lives unconnected to God. But rightly understanding our role should enable us to share the gospel freely and joyfully, without guilt and without bitterness toward God regarding the results.
If you think I’m missing something, please speak up in the comment section.
An illustration of my point
When I entered the words “prayer for people’s salvation in the Bible,” into Google, the first recommended link after the AI suggestions came from Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Copeland is a prosperity-gospel televangelist with a long history of exaggerating the power and authority of believers, in what I consider a heretical manner.
In this case, Copeland’s proposed prayer exemplifies the attitude of being able to claim other people’s salvation that I find erroneous and dangerous. I have copied the full text below, with the most relevant passages in bold.
Father, I come before You in prayer and in faith, believing. Your WORD says You desire for all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth, so I bring _______ before You this day.
I break the power of Satan from his assignments and activities in ______’s life in the Name of Jesus. Now, while Satan is bound, I ask that You send forth the perfect laborers to share the good news of the gospel in such a way that he/she will listen and understand it. As the truth is ministered, I believe _________ will come to his/her senses and come out of the snare of the devil and make Jesus the LORD of his/her life.
Father, I ask that You fill _________ with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. As I intercede in his/her behalf, I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is activated and from this moment on, I will praise and thank You for _____’s salvation.
I am confident that You are alert and active, watching over Your WORD to perform it. It will not return to You void. It will accomplish that which You please, and prosper in the thing whereto it was sent. Therefore, my confession of faith is, “God has begun a good work in ________’s life, and He will perform it and bring it to full completion until the day of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
Scripture references: 2 Peter 3:9; Matthew 18:18, 9:37–38; 2 Timothy 2:26; Jeremiah 1:12; Isaiah 55:11; Philippians 1:6. [If any of these references presented by Copeland authorize us to claim someone else’s salvation, please show me how.]