Christians and prayer- monastery mindset part 2

In my last post I was discussing the reality that Christians very rarely reach out to those who are unchurched by way of inviting them to church. This doesn't mean that we don't have unchurched friends or don't rub shoulders with them; it simply means that studies show we aren't inviting them. In regard to this, I have noticed that many of the Christians I know do seem to be very involved with their Christians friends and other church members outside of church activities as well. When I think about this phenomenon it is not surprising at all. We enjoy doing life with those who share our goals and purpose; it is a blessing to be able to share burdens, joys, and sorrows with those of a like mind and faith.

This brings me to the topic of prayer. Not only are we by and large not reaching out to the unchurched by way of invitation, but I suspect that we are not praying for them either. Most church prayer meetings that I have ever led or been a part of were dominated by requests that we pray for other Christians- those sick or in need in some way. Now I am not knocking this; we are commanded to pray for those who are sick among us and to cast our cares upon the Lord. But if we look at many of the prayer requests and prayers made by the Apostles we see that they were largely focused upon the proclamation of the Gospel and the salvation of unbelievers. Here are a few examples, and there are many others: 2 Thess 3:1, Romans 10:1, Eph. 6:18-19, Acts 4:29, Colossians 4:3. Praying for others to come to God is not a New Testament reality either. The Psalmist prayed in Psalm 67 "may the peoples praise you...may all the peoples praise you."

If all of this weren't enough of an indication where our prayers should focus we need only look at the "model prayer" or "Lord's Prayer" of Matthew 6. Jesus prayed for God's name to be honored as great and His will to be done. The Lord's desire is that men come to be saved through His Son (2 peter 3:9), and Jesus stated emphatically that He came to save the lost. We know that Jesus honored the will of the Father perfectly, which ought to and must give us direction in our praying. The bottom line is this: are we concerned with the salvation of those who don't know God through faith in Christ; do we faithfully pray for them to be saved? Do we pray faithfully for boldness in sharing Christ, or are our prayers only inwardly focused?