Do Not Give Up, Family & Friends!

Have you been praying a long time for someone to be saved?  Do not give up!  (2 Peter 3:9)

Yesterday afternoon I was invited to the home of one of our dear senior saints.  She had something very precious that see wanted me to see.  Ellie’s husband passed away 14 years ago, but she has a wonderful reminder of the greatest day in his life.  Gene was not a born again believer when they married, but in God’s mercy at the age of 31, he trusted Christ as his Savior and Lord.  His own personal testimony is hand-written in this picture.

I was led to the Lord Jesus, by my father-in-law, in his house trailer at Warsaw, Ind., on a Monday afternoon, August 20^th, 1962.  I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior and in return, he has promised me eternal life & some day a home in heaven with him, & our heavenly father and all the true believers, which are from the past, the present, & future.

May I always love him & serve him & thank him, for washing our sins away on the cross of Calvary.

I probably would not have accepted him, had it not been for all the prayers of my wife, my folks, my relatives, and my friends that love me.

Two things stand out to me in Gene’s testimony:

1. The last sentence acknowledges prayers of importunity from Ellie, his folks, his relatives and his friends . . . . “that love me.” What an example of “loving your neighbor” (Matthew 22:37-39)!! You pray for them without ceasing (1Thessalonians 5:17). Do not give up praying for lost souls!

2. The fact that family was used of the Lord to reach Gene for Christ speaks volumes to me. The devil likes to tempt us into believing that the most difficult people to reach are those within our own family.  Truth is, they are the easiest to reach.  You know them; they know you.  Barriers do not have to be broken down by a stranger.  Are you burdened about your lost loved ones?  Talk to them soon about Christ. Do not give up sharing the gospel with folks who desperately need it!

Importunate praying never faints nor grows weary; it is never discouraged; it never yields to cowardice, but is buoyed up and sustained by a hope that knows no despair, and a faith which will not let go. Importunate praying has patience to wait and strength to continue. It never prepares itself to quit praying, and declines to rise from its knees until an answer is received. (E. M. Bounds)

Luke 18:1-8         Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, 2 saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ 4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” 6 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”