“Don’t get your hopes up.” That’s the response I get from most unbelievers when I talk about how I pray for the Lord to someday save my father; to reveal His glory in him. It got to the point where I started to believe he would never come back, never be saved, there was no hope. At marriage counseling even our old pastor basically said it was a lost hope to save my parents marriage (none of us were saved at the time, but that was never addressed). Why was everyone so quick to give up? Why is it impossible for him to change? Such thoughts threw me to the ground weeping before my heavenly Father.
I desperately desire to have a godly father, who will lead and teach me in the ways of our heavenly Father. For a while I lost hope that there was any chance that my father could ever be saved. I had shared the gospel with him time and time again. I thought that I just kept messing up whenever I shared the gospel, or I just kept making it worse, that I was pushing him farther and farther away from God. Wasn’t there something I could do? Something I could say? God gave me that among many other answers through the teaching of a man by the name of Paul Washer.
Now, my Bible Study group will always laugh whenever I quote Paul Washer, because I’m always quoting Paul Washer (with Scripture). Now to make this clear, Paul Washer is still just a man, not a great man of God, just a weak little man with a great God. Though I’ve never actually met him, he is like a father to me, in the absence of my own. The Lord has used him to daily teach me about my Lord, constantly revealing my own depravity and the great mercy and love of our Lord. I do believe that the more we learn about our own depravity, the greater our love for Him grows.
“For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:47). This is where my greatest hope comes from, for my dad. The Lord will often use the vilest of sinners to reveal His glory. Paul Washer is a living example of that. I pray that someday the Lord will reveal His glory in my dad by radically changing him, and bestowing His love upon him. One day I hope my dad will one pick up his cross and follow closely after the Lord. But as much as I love my father and desire for Him to be saved, if he dies apart from Christ, I will still praise my Lord, for He is good.
Shannon- What an encouragement! Thank you for sharing a little piece of your life and the work that God is doing with you and your family. How great is our God that he has saved us! I praise Him for you faith in trusting Him with your dad’s salvation.
Shannon,
I love the passion that you share your heart for your father in heaven and your earthly father. Don’t ever give up hope on your father, I will be paying with you for him.
Thanks, i’m happy we’ll all be in swazi when we are moving that way i wont have to deal with the azxiety. I am looking foward to getting to know everyone else on the team.
Shannon –
Great post! Your obedience and persistence in sharing the Gospel with your dad honors the Lord. Don’t give up! I love the quote here that reads “I do believe that the more we learn about our own depravity, the greater our love for Him grows.” That’s so true in my life! May we grow deeper in love with Him daily.
Shannon it is so encouraging to hear you start in your own Jerusalem. I understand about sharing the gospel with your family.. I’m home for the summer doing that. I shall be praying for ya’lls trip. I’m not going to Swazi but im Whitney’s roomate and she gave me the blog site. I also wanted to say that I have been so encouraged my Paul Washer lately.. i have found him about two weeks ago and have been listening to all the youtube and sermons that i can from him! thank you for encouraging my heart shannon.