Praying for the Lost

Matthew 5:43-45:

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

There is no greater act of love towards our enemies than to pray on their behalf, because it signifies our desire for them to be brought into the same great salvation in which God has brought us. If even God extends certain mercies on the unbelieving world at this time, then we too are obliged to do the same. If Christ died for us while we were yet sinners at enmity with God, how much more ought we love and pray for those we know who are at enmity with God and at enmity with us?

John 11:38-46:

"Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done."

Jesus states his purpose in his public prayer towards his Father that his words and actions would bring everyone standing around to believe in him. It is not clearly if he intended for everyone to believe or only a number of them to believe, but the point is every unbeliever there heard those words. Only some believed while others ratted on him, presumably with evil intent. This did not concern Jesus, as if his prayer only partially succeeded, because he already knows that all that the Father gives to him will come to him (John 6:37). But I think the implications are strong for our own intercessory prayers. We pray for those who do not believe, so that they may believe Jesus was sent by God. The immediate success of those prayers or not should not concern us.