Christ wants us to want Him. He has been knocking on our heart's door for a long time. The atheist has become immune to this knock. Therefore, as you pray for and love them as you love yourself, you gently usher them into the truth that we all must answer the door, by answering to Him in all things. In your prayers, ask God to help them drop their foolish pride so that their unique ripple in this pool of life, spreads and thins to the calm outer waters. There, the turmoil dissolves into tranquil pools of humility.

Christians must show others that we can and do rely on Someone other than ourselves. Relying on Christ is the key to finding the life of true fulfillment. Fellow Christians, we must re-commit to Him daily, hourly, even every minute, if possible. How can we expect full commitment from others, if we are not fully committed ourselves? We'd be wise to respond to Him, who first sought us. We must consciously trust in His unseen presence and we will feel our burdens lifting. Let's have faith in Him and feel the relief that comes from firm support that is not our own. By faith we can open the door of our hearts and find our true help in every need. Showing others what we are doing can help spread the compelling message of Christ, which is the Good News, that Christ saves us from our sins. It is by faith in Him that our sins are forgiven. The unbelievers are irritated that submission to God and faith in Him are necessary in order to know Him. By your actions, you either compel them to or repel them from, Christ's loving message of salvation. God wants His message of love shown, rather than told to everyone. This is the way God has set it up. Jesus gave us deep wisdom in the Bible by stating:

Matthew 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven. (AMP)

Luk 17:21…behold, the kingdom of God is within you (AMP)

Just as the atheist seeks and finds nothing, the true Christian seeks and finds God. Both are found by faith. Share with the atheist that he should stop and ponder why we have faith in the first place. How does faith fit into the physical evolution of mankind? Why would faith be necessary if we are only the product of centuries of physical development? That the atheist and the Christian have faith, can't be denied. In fact, we all have faith in our various belief systems. We Christians, however, need to dive fully into our faith in Jesus Christ. Our hearts should be brimming with love (even for those who refuse to follow Christ). How much love can our hearts give to the lost? Is there a limit? Have the lost treated you with disdain for so long, that you find it impossible to give them love? Remember, nothing is impossible with God. If you struggle with this, go to Him for help.

Our belief systems are not arbitrary. They are consciously chosen. Our parents consciously chose theirs and then they passed it on to us. At that point, we consciously chose what they believed or we found a new belief system. We CHOOSE to believe what our parents, our teachers, our friends or our enemies tell us. If we chose to abandon our parents' belief system, we may return later to the faith of our parents which we rejected or we may, as Christians, embrace the Christian faith which was not known by our parents, and find ourselves praying for their souls.

When you begin praying for a group, God will begin bringing members of that group into your life. This book is about praying for and loving the atheists and I believe, when that happens and they begin to come into our lives, we should challenge them to an experiment. Let us ask them to consider this challenge as merely their personal working out of the scientific method, regarding the establishment of their atheistic beliefs. Many atheists claim an honesty in their scientific investigations and evaluations. They should want to find out if this Christian stuff has any merit. With your prayers and love, the Holy Spirit will begin to put a hunger for Him in their hearts, which they may feel, initially, as uneasiness. At some point, however, you may be able to ask them, for a period of time (perhaps a few weeks or a month), to believe that Jesus Christ died to save their souls and to ask Him to come into their hearts. During this time period, which they would have voluntarily set aside to see if Christianity is a lot of baloney, they must be willing to submit to God. It is important that they do not feign belief; but actually have belief during this experiment, for it is part of the required elements and condition for the experiment to work. During this time, no matter how absurd this sounds, they should pray with all humility to God to forgive them of all of their current, remembered and forgotten sins. Also, during this time, they should stop all the sinning (or the doing of things they know to be wrong or improper in which they are currently involved). Remind them that they can't skip any steps or required conditions, if they are to get the same, proven results which so many Christians have gotten. Remind them that God will not "perform" for their entertainment! There must be a real and sincere effort involved here, done with the precise care they would exercise in any other scientific exploration.

Tell them they can have their minds and hearts back at the end of this scientific experimental period, but for now, they are to allow Jesus to have them. Ask them to allow Jesus to show Himself to them. In addition, they should journal their experiences and complete their fair and impartial observance of what it is like to become a Christian for a while. Then, and only then, will they be qualified to speak against the Christian, explaining our errors from their own scientific observation and experience.

I believe this experiment will begin to prove to them the value of a life lived under the guiding hand of our Savior, Jesus Christ. They may even meet Him, during this time set aside to give Christianity an unbiased evaluation. This fair trial that they give Him will certainly be a breath of fresh air, compared to the trial Jesus had to go through, 2000 years ago. That trial was not fair at all. Invite those unbelievers you've been praying for, to give the Prince of Peace a chance and try this experiment!

When Jesus said that we should seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added unto you, He was inferring the rather deep concept that in this world, there are many treasures to seek after, that are not helpful in the long run. If we seek after the worldly treasures, the entertainment toys, the exciting new cars or (fill in the blank here), we are doing this to the loss of the greater joy that the kingdom of God can provide. Seeking first the kingdom, God gives us all that we need. All of us can recognize that there is a peaceful, tranquil spirit in some people which seems to rise above the frantic turmoil of this world. These may be true Christians who have had their sin washed away by the blood of the Lamb, or they may be people who have taught themselves how to be good, but still have a mighty torrent of carnality churning just below the surface of their lives. We can strive for a deeper joy, a more expanding love and a higher spiritual vista, through Christ. We don't have to settle for anything less.

Mother Teresa may not have appealed to the scientific atheist, but she sure appealed to the Christian community and even those from other religions. They loved to be in her presence and sensed a sustained peace which emanated from her when she spoke. A wisdom that did not come from the world, poured out from her. Is this wisdom available to all Christians? It certainly is, though it seemingly is a rare commodity on this planet.

In order for us to obtain this deeper wisdom, we must become humble. This means we must be submissive to a higher power, or God and not just verbally profess to be of Him. When we are finally able to back off from our own worldly knowledge, through extensive prayer, we will find a far greater wisdom that is not ours and, in our submissive spirits, we will receive an incredible, supernatural guidance from God's Holy Spirit. If we will fear Jehovah (that is, be in awe of Him), and not be wise in our own eyes, but sincerely choose to avoid evil, we will be on the narrow path toward heaven. This is every true Christian's goal. Not doing those things, leads us on the wide path toward destruction.

Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear Jehovah and depart from evil. (MKJV)