How Many Times Do I Have to Tell You?
Momma would sometimes get exasperated with her children as I was growing up. She had six. That would be enough to exasperate any mother. But her patience with each child seemed inexhaustible. She loved her family beyond the trouble and heartache they caused her from time to time.
I really don’t know how she did it except by the grace of the Lord she served. I remember at one point in her dealings with my father that she did give up. I was nineteen at the time, and this was what she related to me: “I had prayed for your dad’s salvation for as long as we were friends, courting, and up to this last Saturday.” She went on to relate things I remember growing up about daddy’s lost condition. Every time he would go to church, at the invitation he would walk out the back door.
Mother explained she kept having a recurring dream about dad going forward to receive Christ as his Saviour. Two women who prayed about it all the time, were so excited in her dream that crying with joy, they ran to the front and hugged Daddy, welcoming him to the family of God.
Finally Mom’s patience ran out. Daddy was a railroader, and as Mom crossed the tracks going home on this Saturday, she told God, “I am so tired of praying for that man. I give up. I’m not praying for him any more. You do what You have to do, Father, because I’m done. As I cross these tracks, I leave my husband on this side, and You take it from here.”
She crossed the tracks and felt the burden of my daddy lift from her heart. The next day he went to church. Mom thought, “It’s just going to happen again. He will walk out the back door when the invitation is given.”
Little did she know the power of her God. Daddy listened intently to the sermon. He got up at the invitation and instead of walking out the back door, he almost ran to the front. He told the preacher he was ready to surrender to Jesus, and prayed the prayer of salvation.
One of the ladies was at church that day, and ran down to the front crying for joy and hugged my dad. That afternoon he called me, as I was at college. He told me he received Christ that morning.
Later Momma told me he wanted to go to Reno. The other lady in Momma’s dream was in the hospital there. They took off for Reno, and when they went into the hospital room, they didn’t even have to say a thing. The other lady with tears of joy streaming down her face, reached up and hugged my dad welcoming him to the Family of God.
Mother never had that dream again. But how many times do we have to pray? How many times do we have to tell God about our burden? How many times before He answers?
Well, His answer is found in His Word. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. The Lord inhabits the praises of His people. He hears me when I call upon His Holy Name. The prayers of faithful children, and righteous in the Lord, will receive answers from our God. He is the God who hears. Sometimes it’s not Him, but the problem is we won’t let go and let Him answer as He sees fit. That’s what He is waiting for. Let go and let God do what only God can do.