A Blessing for the Unreached

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Numbers 6: 24-26

With these words, as God commanded him, Moses taught Aaron and his sons to bless the children of Israel. And so they did for generations. We even hear these words spoken sometimes to our own congregations at the end of worship services.

But what would it sound like to pray a similar blessing for the unreached people of the world? May we bless the nations with a kind of benediction, even though they have not believed? I think we can, and I think blessings for the unreached might sound something like these:

  • Lord, please preserve each one of your elect people until they recognize the vanity of idolatry and the horror of sin. (1 Corinthians 10:14)

  • Heavenly Father, enable the nations to flee from the wrath that is coming on all who do not believe in your Son, Jesus Christ. (John 3:36)

  • Almighty God, would you please deliver the unreached from the power of darkness and convey them into the kingdom of the Son of His love? (Colossians 1:13)

  • Lord, let them see Jesus in the scriptures and in this way see the Father who sent him. (John 12:45)

  • May they repent with a godly sorrow and not a worldly sorrow. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

  • Dear Creator of the Universe and Everything In It, would you please demonstrate the power of Christ to reconcile sinners to yourself so that the unreached will experience it, too? (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

  • Please, Lord, send them your ambassadors who know how to show them the way to eternal life through Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

  • God of all truth, would you keep the nations from being deceived by false teachers? (Galatians 4:17)

  • Lord, send your Holy Spirit to them and keep them from hardening their hearts against Jesus. (Hebrews 3:13)

  • Please, Father, once the unreached believe in your Son and trust in him for salvation, enable them to remain steadfast to the end. (Hebrews 3:14)

  • Merciful Father, please let the unreached stop being your enemies and know your perfect peace. (Romans 5:8-10)

  • Almighty God, please work in your people to welcome newly reached ones into your family and so enjoy the unity that Jesus made available to all who call on his name. (Ephesians 2:14-18)

  • Gracious Lord, work in them so that they may proclaim your praise to all who are near them. (1 Peter 2:9)

  • May the unreached be conformed to Jesus’s image by the work of his Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:29)

We can pray in this way for the unreached people of the world to be reached. We can pray that God’s enemies would be brought near to him, be sanctified, and so grow to be like Jesus. We can pray that the nations would come to see the face of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, know his reconciliation, and be consecrated for service to God.

Elizabeth N.Comment