Black sheep strikes again

So I'm in a discussion with pastors / pastors-to-be, and the topic is evangelism. The topic of the topic was a hypothetical situation where one would "share the faith with another." So somewhere along the lines, someone says they would "above all else pray for the spiritual healing of John Doe."

It is sort of a cliche statement, and one that is to be expected - the entire, "praying for the soul of the lost." I, of course, decided to look into that statement a bit, and simply asked "Why?" I'm sure more than one heart in the conversation stopped. My argument was the following:

1) God is omnipotent, omniscient, omni benevolent, etc.
2) God desires all those to be saved / come to right relation with Him
3) Given 1 and 2, God will always try to "save/convert/restore" someone spiritually.

If 3 does in fact flow from 1 and 2 (and 1 and 2 are true), then asking for God to 'save' John Doe is a bit like asking God to be good. Well of course God is going to be good, because that is in His definition and nature. Likewise, of course God is going to try and 'restore/save' the lost, for that is in His nature as well. So why then, pray for someone to be "saved"? That's not to say one shouldn't pray at all. Consider a prayer of "God, use me to minister to John Doe" (which implies that perhaps God may not use you, but you would like to be used) or "God, heal John Doe of cancer" (which implies God may or may not intervene in the disease and let nature run its course but you would prefer that physical healing take place). But when one says "God save John Doe" it implies that God may or may not intervene, or that God requires X prayers by Y people before He decides to 'save' them from 'eternity'.

Now then, I'm not convinced one way or the other just yet that praying for the salvation of another does or does not serve a purpose, but I think its a little amusing how many people are put off by even examining the idea, and then can't articulate their "well of course you should" position very well.