These 50 Aggressive Prayers For Your Unsaved Loved Ones are for the person who has been praying the same name for years and has watched nothing change. You are not looking for an introduction to intercession. You are looking for something to pray tonight, again, for someone who has already told you they are not interested.
You know the shape of this. Someone you love does not believe, and every conversation about it either turns into an argument or gets carefully avoided. You have tried talking, you have tried not talking, and you have tried leaving books where they might be found. What is left is prayer, and prayer feels slow because you cannot see it working.
Two things worth settling before you start. Your unsaved loved ones are not a project, and you are not their Holy Spirit. God does not force a heart, and neither should you. What you can do is stand in the gap, ask God to do the work only He can do, and refuse to stop asking. That is what these prayers are for. If you want to pray for your own walk with God alongside this, our prayer for salvation covers that ground.
Prayers For the Salvation of Your Unsaved Loved Ones
Start here. These ten are petitions, addressed straight to God, asking Him to do the drawing that no argument of yours ever will.
1. Father Lord, in the name of Jesus, I bring my unsaved loved ones before You today and I ask You to draw them to Yourself by Your Spirit.
2. Lord, You are not willing that any should perish. Let Your patience toward my loved ones become their salvation, in Jesus’ name.
3. Father, send labourers across the path of my loved ones this week, people whose lives will speak louder than any argument I could make, in Jesus’ name.
4. Lord, give my loved ones a hunger they cannot explain and a thirst that nothing in this world satisfies, in the name of Jesus.
5. Father, soften every hard place in the hearts of my loved ones, remove the heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh, in Jesus’ name.
6. Lord, open the ears of my loved ones to hear the gospel clearly, without the distortion of past hurt or bad religion, in the name of Jesus.
7. Father, arrange the circumstances that make my loved ones look up, and let Your kindness lead them to repentance, in Jesus’ name.
8. Lord, let every prayer I have prayed over my family across the years come before You now as a memorial, and answer according to Your mercy.
9. Father, I ask for a divine encounter for each of my loved ones, unmistakable and personal, that they cannot dismiss or explain away, in Jesus’ name.
10. Lord, give me patience for the long wait, and keep my hope alive until I see the salvation of the people I love, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Warfare Prayers Against the Blindness Over Their Eyes
Scripture is direct about why intelligent people who love you cannot see what you see. 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls it a blinding, and a blinding is something to be broken rather than debated. These ten are commands.
11. Every veil of spiritual blindness placed over the minds of my unsaved loved ones, be torn away now, in the name of Jesus.
12. I come against every lie my loved ones have believed about God, about the church, and about themselves, and I command those lies to lose their grip.
13. Every stronghold of pride, resistance, and hardness built up in the thinking of my loved ones, be pulled down by the power of God, in the name of Jesus.
14. I break the influence of every voice, relationship, and habit that keeps my loved ones tied to a life away from Christ, in Jesus’ name.
15. Every spirit of mockery, cynicism, and scoffing operating against the salvation of my loved ones, be silenced, in the mighty name of Jesus.
16. I command every distraction assigned to keep my loved ones too busy to think about eternity to be scattered, in the name of Jesus.
17. Every wound of religious hurt and hypocrisy that turned my loved ones away from God, be healed by the blood of Jesus.
18. I disconnect my loved ones from the deception that tells them there is always more time, and I ask You Lord to make eternity real to them today.
19. Every generational pattern of unbelief operating in my family line, be broken over my household, in the mighty name of Jesus.
20. I declare that the darkness over the eyes of my loved ones is not permanent, and that the light of Christ has already shone into this world.
Scriptures to Pray For Unsaved Family Members
These ten put God’s own words back in front of Him. Praying scripture is not a technique for getting a better answer. It keeps you asking for what He has already said He wants, which is why 1 Timothy 2:3-4 is the safest ground you can stand on here.
21. Father, You desire all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I stand on that word for my family today.
22. Lord, You promised to pour out Your Spirit on all flesh. Pour out Your Spirit on my household, in Jesus’ name.
23. I declare over my loved ones that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, and that power is at work in them, in Jesus’ name.
24. Father, You said You would give a new heart and a new spirit. Do that in my loved ones whose names I have brought before You, in the name of Jesus.
25. Lord, You left the ninety-nine to go after the one. Go after my loved one, and do not stop until they are found.
26. I declare that no one is too far gone for the reach of Christ, and that His arm is not shortened toward my family, in the name of Jesus.
27. Father, You met Saul on a road he had no intention of turning off. Meet my loved ones where they are, in Jesus’ name.
28. Lord, You promised that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Bring my loved ones to that call.
29. I declare that the seed of Your word sown into the lives of my loved ones will not return void, but will accomplish what You sent it to do.
30. Father, let Your word run swiftly in my family and be glorified in the salvation of every person I love, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Prayers For an Unsaved Spouse, Parent or Adult Child
The closer the person, the harder this is to pray without turning it into pressure. These ten are for the people who share your table, and they include prayers for your own conduct, because the person who lives with you is reading your life long before they read a verse.
31. Father, I commit my unsaved spouse into Your hands. Win their heart with a love that is patient and undeniable, in Jesus’ name.
32. Lord, keep me from preaching at the people I live with, and let my life carry the message my words cannot.
33. Father, I pray for my parents who do not know You. Give them years enough to come home, and open the door while there is still time.
34. Lord, I place my adult children before You. I cannot control their choices, so I ask You to pursue them where I cannot go, in Jesus’ name.
35. Father, guard my heart from resentment toward the loved ones who reject what I believe, and keep my love for them warm.
36. I break every argument, offence, and old wound between us that has become a barrier to the gospel, in the name of Jesus.
37. Lord, give me wisdom to know when to speak and when to stay silent, and let every word I do say land with grace.
38. Father, protect my unsaved loved ones from harm while they are still outside of Christ, and give them time.
39. I command every fear that tells me my loved ones will never change to be scattered from my mind, in the name of Jesus.
40. Lord, let my home be a place where Your presence is felt before Your name is ever mentioned, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Prayers For Unsaved Loved Ones Who Have Walked Away
Some of the people you are praying for are not strangers to faith. They knew it, they left it, and that is a different kind of ache. Praying for backsliders means praying against shame more than against ignorance, because shame is usually what keeps the door shut. If a child of yours is the one who walked, our midnight prayer for a wayward child was written for that watch.
41. Father, I pray for the people in my family who once walked with You and have wandered away. Bring them back with the same mercy that first found them.
42. Lord, let the memory of what they knew of You rise again in my loved ones, and let that memory become a road home, in Jesus’ name.
43. I break the shame that keeps my loved ones from returning, and I declare that the Father is already running toward them.
44. Every accusation that tells my loved ones they have gone too far to be received back, be silenced, in Jesus’ name.
45. Father, restore what unbelief has cost my family, and let the years the locust has eaten be given back, in the name of Jesus.
46. Lord, sustain me in this intercession. Do not let my prayers grow cold simply because the answer has been slow.
47. I reject every temptation to stop praying for my unsaved loved ones, and I commit to stand until I see the answer, in the name of Jesus.
48. Father, let me not carry a burden You never gave me. Their salvation is Your work, and I release the weight of it into Your hands.
49. Lord, prepare me for the day they turn, so that I receive them with joy and not with a lecture about the years that were lost.
50. Father Lord, in the name of Jesus, I entrust every unsaved loved one whose name I have carried into Your faithful hands. Save them, keep them, heal what unbelief has damaged, and let me live to see Your salvation in my family, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you pray for someone who is not saved?
Pray for what only God can do rather than for the outcome you want to engineer. Ask Him to draw them, to open their understanding, to send someone across their path, and to arrange circumstances that make them look up. Then pray for yourself: for patience, for a life that matches your words, and for the wisdom to know when speaking helps and when it hardens.
How do you pray for unbelieving family members?
The same way, with one addition. Family members carry history with you, and that history is often the barrier. Pray against the old wounds, arguments and offences between you before you pray about doctrine. Ask God to heal the relationship first, because a repaired relationship is the road the gospel travels on. Keep praying privately and let the pressure come off the conversation.
What is the best way to pray for my loved ones to be saved?
Pray scripture, pray specifically, and pray consistently. Naming the person out loud and standing on a verse such as 2 Peter 3:9 keeps your praying anchored to what God has already said He wants. Consistency matters more than intensity here. Most people who came to faith late were prayed for by someone who did not stop.
What is a powerful prayer for unbelievers?
A prayer that asks God to remove the blindness and to give a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26 gives you the language: Lord, take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. Combine that with a request for a personal encounter they cannot explain away, and you are praying for the two things that actually change a person.
Keep Standing Until You See It
Nothing about this is quick. The father in Luke 15:20 was watching the road long before there was anything on it, and the story turns on the fact that he was still watching. Keep the name on your list. Keep praying it when you are tired of praying it. God is not slow, and He is not finished with the people you love. Pray these alongside our warfare prayers for family deliverance and our prayer for family.