How to Weep for the Lost without Losing Your joy

In response to my message on Sunday from Philippians 3:19, 20 in which I called upon the church to have a heart for all those "many whose end is destruction" I received the following three questions via email; questions which were preceded by a tender expression of gratitude for the message and concern for the lost. I think I will take three days to answer them as best I can.

Question 1: How do I properly weep/pray/FEEL for unbelievers without it turning into a prolonged period of joylessness, depression, or despair?
Question 2: What do I do when doubt/unbelief springs forth, regarding God's inherent love and goodness?
Question 3: How do I approach prayer for unbelievers (and prayer in general) knowing that everything has been ordained before I even existed?


Question 1: How do I properly weep/pray/FEEL for unbelievers without it turning into a prolonged period of joylessness, depression, or despair?

Answer 1: First we must get to the place where we do properly weep for the lost. Few of us do and we need to or we will never lay down our lives for them.

Answer 2: There is a sense in which prolonged, indeed ceaseless grief for the lost is in fact what we need to seek from God (see Romans 9:1-3). As there are always those whose end is destruction and as they are falling into a Christless eternity at the rate of hundreds per hour, how can we not be constantly crying?

Answer 3: Paul knew what it was like to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 6:10). This means that while he wept over the lost and over the griefs of a sin-cursed and sorrow-filled world, he was able to experience simultaneous and surpassing joy in the Lord.

I'm guessing that he did this in the following ways:

1. He trusted absolutely in the sovereignty of God over all things, and the justice of God in all things. Nothing happens (including the end of the wicked) apart from God's plan, and nothing happens in that plan that is anything but perfectly and wholely just. As with Abraham near Sodom we may know that "the Judge of all the earth will do right."
2. Paul knew that in God's amazing love and compassion many, many, many will be saved through our prayers and witness--even many of whom we will not know until we get to heaven. He believed in the "power of the gospel which saves people" (Romans 1:16).
3. Paul believed in an unstoppable gospel, the Word of God that can not be restrained (2 Timothy 2:9). As Isaiah 55:10, 11 make clear God's Word of grace and truth will accomplish all His good and gracious purposes in human lives. This is joy!
4. Paul took note of (and we must too) the actual conversions going on in the world: dozens in our church alone in the past 2-3 years, and according to some reports many tens of thousands every day around the world!
5. I mentioned in passing on Sunday this thought too: there are those who argue that when you take all the biblical promises of revival, of national salvation (at least Israel, Egypt, and Assyria), of the gospel reaching every people group and tribe, and of multitudes which none can number--in the end the saved may well outnumber the unsaved by far. I'm not sure about this, but what I am sure of is that the numbers are going to be staggering which means that the gospel is gloriously powerful and effective, that our prayers and witness are awesomely effective and useful to God, and that we are a part of something that is astonishingly wonderful.

All these truths can not just off-set the tears we shed for the individuals lost, but can give us hope and joy for the many who will be found.

Remember--even Jesus wept over Jerusalem even though everything was going according to plan. Let us weep and weep and weep and weep--but then rejoice and hope and glory and boast and be bold in the gospel. God and His gospel grace and glory will win--and more than we will ever be able to count will live to sing about it!

Amen.