“First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone,… This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:1, 3-6 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/1ti.2.1-6.CSB

Prayer is our primary means of speaking to God. Scripture is His primary means of speaking to us. God is telling us to pray for the people we know and know about so that they might be reconciled to Him for living in obedience to His commands just as we obey Him. It is God’s will, made explicit through His Word in the Bible that all people need reconciliation, and God desires to reconcile everyone with Himself through Jesus the Savior. Jesus is the only means of reconciliation with God. No other religion is capable of pardoning our inherent sinful nature. Only Jesus, Who became a man without a sinful nature and died for humanity as a man because He remained perfect in obedience to God the Father all His earthly days, can pardon a person from the wrath to come. So Christians are to pray for people to respond to the work of God in their lives so that they are reconciled to God. When we are reconciled to God, we are committed to obeying God, Who commands us to love Him and one another as we love ourselves. Imagine our world where everyone loved everyone with the same commitment as we love ourselves?