Don't ever give up

My father-in-law came to faith in Jesus Christ after many years of alcoholism, abuse, and rebellion. My wife and I, after coming to Christ ourselves, prayed for her father for nearly 15 years asking God to open his heart to the truth of the Gospel. After that many years of praying for someone I was getting to the point where I pretty much figured he was a lost cause. However, one Sunday afternoon about 12 years ago, my wife got a call from her father to say that he had accepted Jesus as his Savior. I started crying and I couldn’t decide if I was more excited about my father-in-law coming to Christ or that God really is as faithful as He says He is, but actually it was both.

That experience changed my perspective on prayer. First, I came to realize that there are no lost causes in the eyes of God. His desire is for everyone to come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Secondly, I also came to understand that praying for someone to come to know Jesus Christ brought me into a closer relationship with Him in the process.

I want to skip to the end of my father-in-law’s life because you need to know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. My father-in-law died in June and my wife and I made the usual arrangements for a funeral at his church. One of my father-in-law’s regrets was that he never brought anyone to the Lord, so in talking to his pastor, we asked him to present the Gospel at the funeral service. Of course, he was happy to do so and at the end of the service the pastor asked everyone to bow their heads and he asked anyone who had felt the Holy Spirit speaking to them personally to raise their hands if they had made a decision to accept Christ. We didn’t know who did or didn’t and we left for home the next day.

When we returned home we got a call about a week later from my wife’s cousin. My wife had been praying for her cousin’s salvation for many years. Her cousin called to say that she had accepted the Lord at my father-in-law’s funeral and was now attending church, studying the Bible, and amazed at how God was working in her life. You see, we never know how we might influence someone for Christ.

If you have been praying for someone to come to know Jesus Christ, don’t quit. There are no lost causes and God has never met a sinner so bad He couldn’t save. God is listening and He is working in His own amazing ways to lead that person to Jesus Christ so they can experience eternal life with Him starting today.

Greg Barnes is the pastor of New Song Bible Church.