Baby Sleeping I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. Jeremiah 24:7

There are many of us who pray for loved ones and friends who appear to have strayed from God's path. It might be siblings we grew up, who went to Sunday School and church with us when we were young. It may be children, now teenagers and older, whom we took to church when they were young, or it might even be our own life-partner, who made promises of love in God's Holy House, all those years ago.

We pray for them because we miss them in church. We ask God to strengthen their faith because we worry about their future, especially in eternity. We don't want to miss them in God's kingdom, so we're concerned about their salvation. It's a heavy burden for all Christians everywhere to bear.

So what should we pray for? A new heart, and as the LORD said to Jeremiah, "a heart to know me." We can try to convince and cajole our loved ones to come to church. We can implore them and bore them with our requests to come to church, but without the right heart, our pleas and invitations will fall on deaf hears. We need to ask God to renew their hearts. We need to plead with Him to turn their lives around. We need to pray to the LORD for a new heart to be given to our loved ones, then and only then, we will see their lives begin to change.

Prayer: Lord God, You know the loved ones, dear to my heart, whose indifference to You really worries me. Grant them a new heart to know You. Give them a new start to draw near to You. Open their hearts to a better understanding of who they are in Your eyes and of what they can become by renewing their faith, their hearts to You. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

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