He entered our apartment, walked into my room, and plopped down two dumbbells. A member of our tennis club no longer had use for them and gave them to me, as I wanted to expand my training horizons. Those dumbbells became constant exercise accessories in my youth. 

As a competitive junior tennis player in Florida, I wanted to be in great physical condition. The Florida sun can beat you down, and being in excellent shape can sometimes mean the difference between winning and losing a grueling match.

As part of my overall workout regimen, various exercises with those dumbbells became a standard portion of my training routine. Decades later, I not only own, but still regularly utilize dumbbells in my regular exercise routines.

Through the years, physical training has been a staple in my life. As a competitive junior from the age of 10 to 18, as a college tennis player, as a professional tennis coach for 14 years, and now over 20 years after my tennis coaching career ended, exercise has been, and still is, a constant routine. I’m grateful.

As I’ve aged, the necessity to “keep it moving” has continued to be a priority in my life, for exercise is not only key to physical vitality, it is essential.

In our Christian lives, prayer is also essential to spiritual vitality, for it keeps us connected to the Lord, acknowledges our dependence upon Him, and is essential for leading a fruitful life as a follower of Christ. Like the GEICO ad says, “If you want to save 15% or more on car insurance, you switch to GEICO. It’s what you do!” In the spiritual realm, if you want to maintain a vibrant relationship with God, you pray. It’s what you do!

Specifically in the evangelistic endeavor, prayer is obviously integral to the process. As we continue learning lessons from Paul, we come to a passage in 1 Timothy where the Apostle  Paul highlighted an important evangelistic prayer component that may be easily overlooked or dismissed by the Christian today:

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

Paul wrote from a Roman prison, to Timothy, who at the time was pastoring the church in Ephesus. The Ephesian church had evidently stopped praying for the lost, so Paul urged Timothy to again make it a priority.

In verse 1 the “therefore” is there for the reason that false teachers had perverted the gospel,  which in turn had negatively affected the evangelistic prayers of those in the church. Paul called out two false teachers by name in 1 Timothy 1:18-20:

“This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

So Paul urged that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Here Paul included political leaders, because in his day, just as in our day, they can be hostile to God and therefore a target of our bitterness and resentment. Instead, we’re called to pray for, bless, and do good to them. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).

And why pray for all men? So that our testimony will be effective and pleasing to the Lord: 

“that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (1 Timothy 2:2-3).

Although persecution was certainly possible in Paul’s day and exists in our day, it should typically come as a result of holy living, not civil disobedience. For just like first century believers, today we’re also called to be salt and light in the midst of a perverse and corrupt generation:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16).

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain” (Philippians 2:14-16).

The evangelistic nature of praying for all men comes into light in 1 Timothy 2:4, where Paul noted the heart of our Savior God,

“who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

God’s desire should be our desire, His heart our heart. Yet, how difficult is it for us to regularly pray for the salvation of even those in our sphere of influence. In the midst of the spiritual war in which we find ourselves, the present enemies of entertainment, busyness, and our own issues and problems can crowd out evangelistic prayer. Lord, help us to pray.

In the course of my journey with Jesus, I had a good friend from college (I’ll call Chris) in the mid-1980’s, whom I’d lost contact with after graduation. Upon coming to faith in 1987, I would occasionally remember him in prayer, as he wasn’t a believer. Several years ago we reconnected on facebook. Chris called me on the phone one day, and as we caught up, he shared that he’d become a Christian ten years earlier! I was thrilled!

I have other lost people in my life I’ve been praying for many years, even some I’ve lost contact with. Yet, I continue to pray in faith. I would encourage you to keep praying for those in your sphere of influence, our leaders, and all men (kingdompraying.com is a great resource for evangelistic prayer). So, pray in faith and persevere in prayer, knowing that in some cases, only in heaven will the fruit of our prayerful labors be revealed.

Lord Jesus, give us not only hearts that break for the lost, give us hearts that pray for the lost, even all men! Amen.