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I have advice for YOU!
I know it’s hard as a parent who loves God, the one true living God of the Bible, to want your child to also follow the God you know. From the time they are born…and even before then…you have an anxiety that the day they accept the salvation God offers them through Jesus Christ can’t come soon enough! If this is you and that day has not come yet…I have both a story for you and an encouragement that I can only pray will be eternally life-changing for you…please read on.
My story for you starts in 1999. I had learned that my son was going to be coming into the world after the start of the new millennium and his due date was in March. I am a God-fearing man and yet my son would be coming into this world having been conceived out of wedlock. I wasn’t proud of this fact, but my son was coming and I wanted him to know the God I know. Before he was born, I started to pray for him. I prayed that God would prepare my son’s heart for Him even as my son was developing in the womb. I prayed this quite often and I truly believed my God would answer me. As time went on and I started to see my son’s elbow and hand move across my girlfriend’s stomach my prayers continued. My son was born on March 21, 2000. I was so thankful that he was finally here and I also got a kick out of the fact that his birthday would be very easy to remember being 32100. I will never forget going over to see my son as they put him under the heat lamp to keep him warm. He was blinking his eyes trying to fix them on me as I stared at him face to face, amazed at the incredible miracle he was. It was surely not lost on me the responsibility and accountability I now had to be his dad. Once he was here, my anxiety for my son to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior was at an all-time high! I prayed and prayed and continued to pray. As my son got older, I would pray with him when I put him to bed and then play Christian music for him as he went to sleep. I knew it would take time. I knew I had to wait on God, trusting He would hear my constant prayer for my son’s eternity and salvation. The problem I had was this couldn’t happen soon enough.
When my son was about 6 years old, as I was putting him to bed, I decided it was time. I had told him about Christ and what He did for us on the cross, but I had never challenged my son to accept Christ before…after all, he was 6! But I wanted his eternity secure so bad that I pushed on and went for it. I asked and challenged my son that night to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Up to this point, my son had never had any problems with us praying every night and enjoyed the Christian music, so “I” thought it would go well. Immediately, my son started to cry! He said he was scared and he didn’t understand it. God hit me, with what seemed like a 2 X 4, square in the forehead, clearly telling me this would not happen in my timing. I quickly backed off! I hugged my son, telling him not to worry about this and now wasn’t the time. I left his bedroom feeling ashamed at what I had done. How could I have been so dumb to think at 6 years old, he’d be ready?
So I went back to praying. As my son got older, I put him in a Christian school so that he was taught in school the same things we were teaching him at home. To this day, putting my kids in a Christian school is the best investment I’ve ever made in my life and always will be.
Speed up to November 28, 2012. My son is now 12 years old. It’s getting pretty late this night. The rest of my family had gone to bed and my son and I were watching TV on our living room couch. My son was getting ready to head to bed. I was always the last one in our household to go to bed so I had planned on being up for a little while longer to wind down for the night. As we were sitting on the couch and just as my son was getting ready to head up to his bedroom to go to bed, I heard a voice in my head and my heart say to me, “Talk to your son about ME!” The problem was, “I” didn’t want to! So, I said in my mind, “No, not tonight, I want to watch TV”. But God was not having it! Again, the voice in my heart and head said, “Talk to your son about ME.” I’m sure the internal battle only lasted a couple of moments, but to me it, seemed like it lasted forever! Finally, my son started to get up to head to bed and I said something like, “Hey, before you go to bed, I just want to talk to you for a quick minute. It’s been quite a while since I’ve talked to you about God and accepting his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. I just want you to know, that I’m always here for you if ever want to take that step.” My son acknowledged my offer in some way I truly don’t remember. We said our goodnights, and both said, “I love you,” and off to bed he went.
In my mind I said to God, “There! I did it” as if to say, hey, I listened and now back to watching TV. Looking back to this moment, I feel like I put zero effort into my God’s call. I really just went through the motions to get God’s voice out of my head. Thankfully, I serve a God who is so much bigger than my failures and is always faithful…ALWAYS!!!!! This night was not over!
With my son off to bed (or so I thought), I decided to move my TV watching to my home office in the back corner of our home. I was sitting at my desk facing the doorway into our playroom and, to this day, I have no idea what I was watching. I’m not sure how much time had passed, but I don’t think it was very long. Suddenly, I looked up to see my son walking toward me and looking pretty emotional as if he had been crying a little bit. He caught me off guard and I immediately asked him, “Buddy what’s wrong?” My son replied, “Dad, I think I want to take that step.”
My heart and mind raced liked crazy! My adrenaline went through the roof! I was overwhelmed almost to the point of not knowing what to do! I had prayed for this moment for over 12 years and yet was so excited, I almost couldn’t handle it! Excited, I said, “Ok!”… and I ran to get his mom out of bed…” C’mon! You have to get up! Our son wants to accept Christ as his personal Lord and Savior!” She came downstairs and joined us in my office.
I grabbed my Bible, we broke open the Scriptures, and walked through God sending his only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins…that we needed a way for us, as sinful human beings, to be reconciled with our perfect God. Jesus, and Jesus only, made this possible with his sacrifice. He paid the perfect price and was the perfect gift. Jesus’ shed blood would build the bridge for us to be reconciled to our God. God is perfect and cannot have sin in his presence. The blood of Jesus covers our sins. We talked about the importance of repenting our sins and accepting Christ as Lord. Without Christ’s gift, we are condemned and our sin will leave us forever separated from God!
As we talked, his mom, held our son in her arms. She looked at me in astonishment and said, “He’s trembling!” With those words, I knew at that very moment, that this was absolutely real! God had answered all my years of praying for my son! I walked my son through a prayer for him to pray to ask Jesus to be the Lord of his life and save him from his sin! At that moment, I believe Jesus saved my son! When we were done, both my wife and my son went off to bed.
For me, there was no way I was going to bed! I had time to spend with my God. I had praising and worshipping to do! I remember falling to my knees and raising my hands in triumph, shaking, and praising my God. I was in absolute awe that my prayer had come full circle. My God had heard my prayer! He was faithful…just as He promised! I just remember walking through my home, with tears in my eyes, thanking my God!
I tell you this true story to say this (and especially to you moms!) God is faithful! If my story resonates with you and you are in the current season of waiting for God to show up, I hope that you will take from this that God is faithful! He will show up! Over 12 years I had to wait, but I don’t believe God only heard my prayer that night…that night, I wasn’t even in the mood to share Him with my son. Instead, I truly believe God heard my prayer the moment I started praying for my son!
I leave you with this important advice: Stay in prayer! Read the Bible! God’s promises are there!
I can’t tell you strong enough that God hears your cries! Stay in prayer and know that God will answer! He is a great God!
To God be all the glory and Have Character!
J. Noah Russell
HAVE CHARACTER™
