CONVERTING MY DAD TO CHRIST
If you want something so badly and you pray for it diligently, but don’t believe it will ever happen….do you think you will ever get it? James 1: 6-7 “…But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”
In the context, we know it is talking about asking for wisdom in this Scripture, but it can include anything that we might need.
We had worked for 21 years to convert my dad, after we learned the truth about the gospel of Christ…but we were so anxious that we really made him bitter against it. My dad was a good man and he believed like so many others today…that you just be ‘good’ and you would go to heaven. My Dad had heard the word “God” used so much in vain and bad language, which he detested hearing… that he wouldn’t bring himself to call God, God. He always referred to Him as “The Good Lord.” Now even that is being used in a vain manner. We obeyed the gospel of Christ when our son was about 2 months old. On his 21st birthday my daddy obeyed the gospel.
One of Bobby’s old family friends came by one day selling Bibles and a program on converting others. It was a real eye opener for us. It taught, among other things, the concept of believing you get what you are praying for…and it starts with imagining that you have it. That is a very Biblical concept that we have over-looked in the past in teaching someone the gospel. We may have kept praying but would lose heart of them ever obeying the gospel.
THE PROGRAM: SUCCESSFUL SOUL SAVING
The part that got my attention was the instructor saying to concentrate on the one person you are most concerned about teaching the gospel. Of course mine was my dad. The instruction was to imagine the person obeying the gospel several times a day as you pray for them to understand the truth. Imagine it so vividly that you ‘see’ the clothes they are wearing. Imagine them walking down the aisle or whatever scene you think will be involved in it.
Pray several times a day and imagine them making the confession of Christ and submitting to baptism. Imagine it so strongly, that you even “see” the clothes they are wearing. Well I did this…and it wasn’t but a few months after that and it happened! The strange fact about this….After I had followed these instructions for just a little while…I couldn’t even imagine my dad NOT obeying the gospel.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THIS WORKING:
I had a dear friend who had cancer and a few weeks earlier, I had told her about this system and in about a month her dad obeyed the gospel. I didn’t know for sure if she had used this system . He had been very bitter against the church. Just a while later, she was in the hospital for the last time and some of us were taking turns sitting with her. One night when I was with her, I wanted so badly to know if she had used what I’d told her about, because her dad had obeyed the gospel so soon…but I hated to ask her when she was so sick…but I did. She looked up and smiled and said, “Yes, especially the prayers and imagining the clothes he was wearing.”
That’s the two that this was used on that I am aware of…and that makes 100 %…but it is hard now to concentrate on one person. I need to try to do that again though. I just imagine it would work even if you were concentrating on several. Just wanted to share this and I hope it helps many who are trying so desperately to teach their loved ones. As you can see, it is a Biblical concept. We also know though that there are few who are going to be obedient because Jesus tells us that. But I am thankful that I learned this concept better...of ‘faith in what you pray’.
Note: Another speedy answer to prayer. Our son came by my dad’s on his way home one weekend and invited my dad to come to our house with him and he would come in the next week and take him back home. While my dad was there I wanted to start up a conversation with him about obeying the gospel because we had studied with him every chance we got for 21 years. We were the first ones up and drank coffee together just us every morning.
Every night when we went to bed, I was really motivated and planned to speak to him about it the next morning…but every morning, it was strange that I just wasn’t motivated or even knew how...to bring up the subject.
The last night he was there, I was again motivated and lying in bed, I prayed that I would still feel that way in the morning too…my last time alone with him and my last chance that visit, to bring it up. Well! Not only was I motivated to bring it up, that visit…but my dad brought it up himself! God meets us more than half-way in any effort we attempt for His cause! I am amazed at how He answered that prayer and many others since!
