People Can Change

When my husband was the pastor of a church in Georgia there was a woman who visited our church. The first Sunday she came she expressed sorrow for the fact that her husband was not a believer and was pretty anti-God. He was a rough, tough carpenter that had no desire at all for the Lord. She wasn't even sure he was going to let her come to church with any regularity.

My husband and my brother-in-law went to visit this man one evening. It was one of these situations where my husband and brother-in-law had been working all day to clean our chimney and were tired and exhausted but after cleaning up my husband said to my brother-in-law. "Come with me, I want to visit someone." So off they went to this man's house not knowing what to expect. They shared the gospel with him and at the end of the visit this man accepted Jesus Christ into his life and became a believer that very day. He was immediately a different man. He stopped drinking and going out with his buddies. He never missed a Sunday at church or anytime the church doors were open and in fact became a deacon and one of the head people in building our church building when the time came. Needless to say, we were all rejoicing in the Lord for this new convert and that night was definitely what we call a "divine appointment".

There was another "divine appointment". There was a man whose name was Saul. This man was a zealous Jewish leader who was persecuting the Jews because of their belief in Jesus Christ. You know the story. Saul was on his way to Damascus with a letter from the high priest to bring believers in Jesus Christ to Jerusalem to be imprisoned or murdered. He meets Jesus on the way or should I say Jesus met him and you know the rest of the story. Read Acts 9 to refresh your memory and refresh your joy in the Lord's grace.

We all have special people in our lives who do not know Christ. It breaks our heart and we have been praying for them for a very long time, sometimes years. Yet we don't see any change. It becomes very disheartening. I have a list of those kind of people I have been praying for and am still praying for. I keep praying for that day when they will come face to face with the resurrected Christ and meet Him and understand forgiveness and repentance. My encouragement to you and me is "don't give up".

If the Holy Spirit can take a man like Saul breathing threats to God's people and turn him around to be the leader he became for the sake of the gospel, he can take our loved ones and turn them around. You might be thinking "but you don't know this person and how hard hearted he is." Well I don't, but the Lord does and can and will continue to change people as long as He tarries. We know that only He can change people. We must continue praying and never give up that hope.

Saul who becomes the apostle Paul says he is the chief of sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15) I encourage you not to focus on who these people are and what they have done but who Christ is and what He has done. People can change.