A Prayer for Lost Siblings
I’ve been reminded lately of just how many of us who are in Christ have siblings who are outside of Christ. It’s hard sometimes to know how to pray for these whom we love so dearly, especially if we’ve been doing it a long time. I’m sharing here a prayer which I hope might help us continue to entrust our loved ones and our own hearts to the mercy of God.
If it seems intense, well…I don’t know, I guess these things are intense when we look them right in the face. I did my best to pray according to the truth of Scripture. Please correct me if you see anything wrong there. Your words and emphases might be different. And of course this is not all-inclusive. I hope this serves as an encouragement to pray in your own specific situation and desires.
I have used brother as an example here, but it can be interchanged. I’ve attached a PDF of this version as well as one for a sister. Because it’s hard to pray while staring at a screen. It looks long, but it only takes about five minutes. Well-spent minutes, I hope.
God bless you and hear our prayers.
Lord God,
Heavenly Father,
By Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
Have mercy on Your son, my brother, ________. He has wandered from Your ways.
Whether he was deceived and came to love a lie,
or was ignorant of the faith and grew hardened,
or was captivated by the lusts of the flesh;
in truth, he was likely overcome by all of these things, and now he stands opposed to You, under Your judgment.
Your patient forbearance has preserved him thus far, for which I thank You with my whole heart — but I know his destruction is at work even today, and I would not will it to come to its maturity in eternity. Bear with him a little longer still, and send Your salvation from on high, that he may turn from his sinful ways and live.
From the same flesh and blood from which You fashioned me, You formed his frame. From the same womb in which I was sheltered and grown, he, too, was born. We are one in flesh, but not in spirit,
And I —
who hide Your Spirit in this very flesh of mine,
whose flesh is taken up in the crucified and risen flesh of Your Son —
thus carry in myself my own brother’s flesh and blood, which is at enmity with You, to Your throne and implore You on his behalf:
Eternal and Almighty Father in heaven, have mercy.
Lord Jesus Christ,
You promised You would bring a sword of division between brothers, and it has been brought down upon my family. I am grieved and in pain. My soul cries out for the unity and peace which ought to be among brothers and sisters and fathers and children.
Let Your wounds, which proclaim my healing, be his comfort.
Let Your cross, which absorbed my punishment, be his refuge.
Let Your resurrection, which promised mine, be his hope.
Let Your robe of righteousness adorn him and cover every blemish, just as You have done for me.
I see the temptation, O Lord, to love my brother more than I love You, and so find myself unworthy of You. I confess that in my weakness, I often find this ordering of affections difficult. It often seems the easy way to speak past his sin, to ignore the havoc it wreaks upon his heart and our family and those around him. It often seems the easy way to forget Your name and Your ways in his presence, that I might be easier for him to love.
In Your kindness, press Your love heavily upon my heart, that it might be molded into a pure form, ready to forsake all others for Your sake. You are worthy.
I long to be made worthy.
I am salt of the earth and light of the world, even if my world has lost its taste and learned to love the darkness. For if salt loses its saltiness, what good is it? If a light is hidden under a basket, what help is it? No, You have called me to be holy, set apart, outside, other-than, even though it stings in the wounds of others’ unbelief, blinds the eyes accustomed to the darkness — a pain that is for their good, to bring them healing, to give them life.
If I look anything like You, I will be rejected by my brother as You are.
Let me not grow weary of being disfavored or forgotten. Make me like You, and I will silently bear reproach for Your name’s sake.
O my Lord,
despised and rejected among men,
for the salvation of men,
strengthen me for the task.
Holy Spirit of God,
Be the help of all Your Church, that she might call out in every place to receive the lost into the salvation of Christ. Hold the Savior and His cross before my brother’s sight through me and all Christians around him, bearing witness to our Lord in word and deed, in truth and love, in beauty and hope.
Keep us faithful, that my brother cannot forget this Jesus even in his wanderings. Keep our churches holy, that they may be fit to receive the one who seeks healing. Grant us wisdom, that we might imitate Christ not only in His extravagant grace, but also in His guarding the treasures of the Kingdom from those who would trample it underfoot. Help us see when the dust is to be shaken off our feet.
Bind, disarm, and cast off the spirits of darkness which cloud my brother’s spiritual sight. Enlighten his eyes, and bear him up to see the awful misery of his condition without succumbing to despair. Let Christ the Crucified be held before his eyes.
Free him from slavery to sin;
soften his heart, that he might know the Father’s great love for him;
grant him courage to forsake all others,
and so be made whole in a holy union with Christ.
O my Comforter,
While my grief over my brother is great, I do not forget that of my father and mother.
Help them to humbly examine themselves and repent of any wrongdoing,
to grieve and pray for their son,
to place their hope not in being loved by their son,
but in being loved by Christ,
And so be strengthened to stand firm in Him: in hope, in prayer, in persecution, in love, in grief.
Be my Comforter and my Help. I grieve over what I do not have: peace within my earthly family. I hope in God, Who raises the dead, that I might one day know it. Let me not neglect this hope.
O Holy God, Three in One, Who knows perfect peace and love,
Though my heart is grieved by my brother’s unbelief, let me rejoice that You have made me Yours and have given me all things through Jesus Christ. I am not worthy of that which I have received from Your hand.
I thank You, that You have carried me thus far. Carry me still.
Let Your steadfast love give my brother life, that we might know the precious oil of brotherly unity running over and redeeming bonds of blood, breaking the curse of Adam’s sin.
Let us be found in You, O God, together as one, that You may be in us, that the world may know You have loved us, to the glory of Your holy name.
Amen.
Wow this was timely that I found this. If for no other reason, I just want to say thank you for sharing, because you put words to what my spirit has felt for my sister.