NEVER GIVE UP

I could scarcely believe it when I saw a young man standing at the door, holding a bible.  Previously he had visited when under alcohol or drugs, and I feared opening the door especially when home alone with our girls.

But he looked so different. ’Don, what has happened, ’I gasped, opening the door to bring him to talk with my husband. ’Do you think I am different, ’he asked?

‘I’ll say you are,’ beckoning him into the kitchen where I had made some coffee.
‘Don, sat down as I poured his coffee, ‘tell me what has happened.’

‘While driving a semi-trailer in the out back of Queensland, right out of the blue, the Lord spoke to me, ’Don, you’re a fool.  Turn your life over to ME. ’ And, said Don, ’That’s exactly what I did.’

He was evidently a changed person, and I said, ’Your Mum and dad, and lots of good friends have prayed for you for so long: it had to happen.’ ’I Know,’ said Don, going on to tell of his young friends seeking to being young people to the Lord. Although he seemed an unlikely person, the Lord had continuously worked in Don’s life. Having watched him over many years, despite warnings and entreaties, we observed he had been on a downward slide from God. We joined his parents, praying for his Salvation.  Who could anticipate that thousands of kilometres distant in Queensland, Don’s conversion would come in the cabin of a semi-trailer?

Prayer was marvellously answered.

Drew likewise was a drug-taker. He was in a gang of bikies, often telling my husband of the hallucinations or flashbacks when taking LSD.  My husband often pleaded with him to give up his drug-taking and receive the Lord Jesus as His Saviour. But to no avail.  However, Drew resisted prayer. 

I remember Drew in utter distress, telephoning me at 3 am, pleading for help. My husband drove him to a Christian friend, who had been delivered from drugs. I prayed and sang to him as I drove, watching out of the corner of my eye that he would not attempt anything unwise.  ’Leave him with me, doctor; I can handle fellows like this.  I know their language, having been where they are.’ 

Sadly, Drew reformed, but was never truly born again. A solemn warning.  

While twenty years is a long time, God prepared this family for Grandma, Mother and father and two sons have recently received the new life that comes with faith in Jesus Christ.  The father commented to my husband, ’Now all that you have told me for twenty years makes sense. ’

The father rejected the love of God, but could not resist the pleading of the Holy Spirit, when he sae one of his sons converted to the Lord. The real change in the son compelled the father to enquire concerning salvation; and receive Christ.  The mother and the grandmother noticed the real change in the father.  One by one, the entire family trusted Christ for salvation.  The father stopped drinking and smoking immediately.  They no longer needed these props.

Restlessness and depression gave way to joyfully opening their home for bible studies for young people.  God had completely transformed the entire household.

The great grandmother had died twenty years previously; but the Lord had answered her faithful prayers for’ the conversion of my family.’

May these real -life stories encourage you to keep on praying: God always answers.

GWENDA