Salvation and Free Will

[Sojourner]

It is our choice to be saved. God will convict, but we must choose whether to reject or accept Christ.

So my question is:

What part does prayer have, by saved people, on the outcome of a lost person's decision? I know personally a man whose godly wife prayed for him for years to get saved, and he died in his sleep lost. Obviously it was because he exercised his free will and chose not to get saved. So then what part can prayer play? Will God soften someone's heart? Will God answer the fervent prayer of a saved person on the behalf of someone's soul? And if so, is there a random way He chooses to soften hearts? Do you suppose God tried to soften this man's heart in answer to his wife's prayers, and he rejected that?

I don't mean to bring up Calvinism, but when you start from this premise, then the inevitable answer is "no", it has no effect......otherwise God is usurping His will over man's will and THAT could never happen, could it? :roll

[Anon]

There is Scripture to back up the fact that God both hardens and softens hearts. I assume prayer can help. I just wondered why God sometimes doesn't encourage a lost person to soften their heart in response to heartfelt and Godly prayer..unless that person is just *that* stubborn.

[JerryNumbers]

Some are just that stubborn, every time they hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ they harden their hearts.

God has ways we do not understand, He works behind the scenes, but in the end He will not force no one, and we know He is longsuffering and rightly does not want any to be lost.

Such a thing as praying for a lost friend or loved one, we just have to pray for them and turn it over to our Lord and trust Him.

But we each must do our part.