Praying for Conversion

Ezekiel: 36:22-28, Psalm 4, Ephesians 6:10-20

Do you wish someone in your life believed in Jesus? I can think of a few friends and family. We, as Christians, know something so wonderful, awe-inspiring, life-changing, and peace-inducing that we should want everyone we know to experience it too. Since we know one's ability to experience this is wholly dependent on their relationship with God - it leads us to want others to share our faith. on the other side, the world only offers false and fickle versions of these things, so this leads us to want one thing for those we love and that is a relationship with Jesus. A lovely house, a good job, a kind spouse, these things fall short, so I find myself praying for one thing for my children Matteo and Eliza. More than anything else I want them to believe, know, and follow Jesus Christ - so I work and pray for just that. 

I have heard people say that evangelism feels like a scary word. Yes, speaking our faith can be scary, because we never know how someone will respond. It can be scary because we have to trust that God will give us the words when we don’t know enough. Evangelism is scary because Jesus tells us we will be rejected for our faith. This is why Paul so often asks for prayers for courage and the right words. Paul is possibly the greatest evangelist in history and yet, he is asking for God’s courage and words. The reality we experience in sharing our faith isn’t new, it may just be new to us. Yet, we need to be like Paul and pray for courage and words, so that we can speak of Jesus Christ to those we love. 

The very fact that we have to pray both for courage and words, should tell us something important about evangelism - we are not primarily the ones who do the work. We hear in our first reading from Ezekial that it is God who does almost all of the work. God looks at rebellious children who through abuse, cheating, faithlessness and more deservedly live as exiles and servants. Let's face it, that is everyone. Through our abuse of our life and calling and one another, through our abuse of our relationship with God we too often experience exile, a disconnect from home and we too often are servants or slaves, living and working for someone else’s gain and not our own. Yet, God looks at us and says, “I will restore you. I will wash you clean. I will take away your idols. I will replace your heart with my Spirit. I will take your heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh”. This is what God wants to do in all of us and this is what we need to praying for. 

You may not realize it, but conversion by necessity requires a softened heart, a heart of flesh - that is what we need to turn to and accept Jesus. This may be hard to realize, my friends and family who don’t believe are often kind or generous, and they accept me (most of me at least). How can this be a heart of stone? Well, for one, these things do not make someone a good person, in God’s created purpose these are the bare minimum that we should accept from one another, but moments of goodness do not make up for the other wrongs spoken, acted on, or thought. 

We experience hard hearts when we feel unaccepted, rejected, belittled, used, or abused. So this leads us to the second reality about unconverted hard hearts, they are hearts of stone because they have rejected, belittled, used, and abused Jesus Christ, even if they are not always conscious about doing it. Every day, we see someone we love reject and ignore someone else we love. Can you imagine seeing a friend reject your loving child, niece or nephew? That is what we see daily with our friends and Jesus, but we fail to recognize it, because we can often ignore Jesus too. They and we are failing to recognize the loving person that is right in front of us. 

This speaks to the third reality of hard hearts in need of conversion, people have hard hearts because they are rejecting the truth. The way we personally experience this is every time we experience our faith in Jesus being rejected, insulted, or belittled. This is a truth about who we are and yet part of us is being rejected. Yet, the same is actually happening for them too. When they reject Jesus, they are actually rejecting themselves as one made in God’s image. Going on, they are also rejecting the truth of this world, what it was meant for, what our relationships are meant for, and how we might live in a world of love. As insulting as it might feel, everyone who has not given their life wholly over to Jesus has a hard heart. 

So, this is what we want for people when they come to Christ, we want their hard hearts to be taken away and be replaced with hearts of flesh. That’s what we want for ourselves too. Ezekiel doesn’t say we slowly chisel away at a hard heart, no it is God that says I will take your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. This is a transformation, this is a new reality, this is a new life. This is not something we can do, either for ourselves or for those we love. It is only God that can do the main work of conversion. 

This brings me to the most important thing I want to pass on to you today. The most important thing we can do when we want someone to know Jesus is to pray for their conversion, for a heart of flesh, for eyes to see, ears to hear, and courage to step out in faith. We can have all the knowledge, all the right words, all the courage in the world, but without receptive, humble, and willing hearts of flesh, those words and actions won’t go anywhere. They will hit a brick wall. They will be like seeds that fall on a path and are immediately eaten up. They will be like pearls before swine or an inheritance to an uncaring and not yet prodigal son. We need to pray for others to become children so that they can once again see their Father in heaven. 

10 years ago, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby was inspired by a friend. If I remember correctly, this friend had a list of 100 people. He prayed every single day for their conversion - this went on for decades. Towards the end of his life, he went through his list and found out that 97 out of the 100 people had come to believe in Jesus Christ. Im sure it wasnt just prayer. I imagine he was a good Christian example in word and deed and I know that a lot of other people would have had a hand in these 97 people coming to faith, but that doesn’t change the fact that his prayer had an immense and powerful effect. This is because in praying for conversion we recognize one fundamental fact: it is God who does the work of converting the heart. The work of prayer is inviting him in - even inviting him into your relationship with the person. Then it is the Christian work to join with the Holy Spirit as we speak into that new heart of flesh. 

So, how often do you pray for conversion? Do you pray for softened hearts? Do you pray for eyes to see and ears to hear? Do you pray that people will come to know Jesus Christ in fullness? We know we want good things for those we love, but too often we don’t recognize that all those good things come from Jesus and he is the only way they will truly receive them. He is the only one that will deliver us from exile and slavery. 

This leads me to the fact that we also need to be praying for our conversion. We know that we need to grow in faith. We know we need to grow in understanding. We know that we have to be better at accepting and holding onto Jesus at all times. We may have been given hearts of flesh, but we also have to pray so that we use them. If God has been softening anyone’s heart they will see this in you, they will see the difference God has made in your life and they will want it, they will ask about it, they will seek God through you. Of course, this also leads us to br like Paul and pray for courage and words. 

Part of this praying for our hearts of flesh is that we need them to actually care for people - and not just to look kind. As a parent, I have learned a hard truth, sometimes I have to do the uncomfortable, the exhausting, the hard, and even seemingly unkind things to truly care for my toddler or infant. Waking up an infant to feed or change their diaper does not feel like the right thing. Saying no to a toddler when they want more cookies or fruit or forcing them to go to bed when they are having so much fun, does not feel like the right thing. Letting a child cry as they go to sleep or throw a tantrum when they don’t get something they want does not feel like the right thing. Yet, I can only do these things because I know and believe in a love that is far bigger than our wants or what is comfortable - and I have aslo seen  the negative consequences of not doing such things - so I still need a softer heart.

I think this relates directly to our wanting conversion for our friends and family. They might not want it at the time, but we know they need it and that they will be far far far better for it. Our praying may take time and energy away from other things, but we know it is important. Our changed lives mean changed desires, so there is sacrifice. Our speaking out about our faith will meet rejection, it will be uncomfortable, it won’t always feel right, but we know it is right and it is what we and this world need. This realization can only come from a true heart of flesh that is open and beating to the truth of God and his creation. 

When we have hearts of flesh we become like that good soil that God’s word/seed can grow in. Then we too can bear fruit 100-fold. Did you ever notice something about fruit though? It bears the seed. When we have hearts of flesh and are good soil, God’s word grows in us and produces fruit that then can bare seeds to other good soil, which will thanks to God’s grow and become fruitful itself. 

We need to be praying for hearts of flesh, ears to hear and eyes to see, so that we might bear fruit and so that those in our lives might receive it. We know it is what everyone needs. AMEN