A woman we know never led anyone to Christ. Couldn’t do it. Then she decided if she couldn’t evangelize she could always pray. So she looked up verses related to salvation and prayed them for friends and coworkers.

The next thing you know people were coming to Christ. Lots of them.

Her story got our attention because many adults care about students but don’t know how to talk to them about Christ. So why not reverse things and talk to Christ about students?

Here are the verses our friend prayed for her coworkers, and we’re happy to report God also honors them on behalf of students:

1. That God draws them to Himself. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

2. That they seek to know God. “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

3. That they believe the Scriptures. “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

4. That Satan is bound from blinding them to the truth. “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19). “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

5. That the Holy Spirit works in them. “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. . . . He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:8, 13).

6. That God sends someone to lead them to Christ. “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field'” (Matthew 9:37-38).

7. That they believe in Christ as Savior. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

8. That they turn from sin. “[God] commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

9. That they confess Christ as Lord. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

10. That they yield all to follow Christ. “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15). “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8).

11. That they take root and grow in Christ. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).