Hopeless Cases

“My dad was a hard drinker,” Peter told me.

“When I was younger, I used to drink with him. I became a Christian, and my life changed, but Dad never showed any interest in the Bible.” Anyone who has seen a family member continue on a self-destructive course understands Peter’s anguish. But Peter prayed for his father, believing that God could and one day would reach his father’s heart. When his father was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, Peter knew time was running out for his dad. “When I held a Daniel seminar in our little hometown, my father said he wanted to attend,” said Peter. “He never missed a night, and when we began a class for people who wanted to prepare for baptism, my father joined the class.” A week after his baptism, Peter’s father was hospitalized and died soon after.

But toward the very end of his life, he surrendered his heart to Jesus and died in the blessed hope of the Second Coming.

There are many people who might be considered hopeless cases: people who have been antagonistic to the gospel, who have shown no inclination to know anything about the Bible, or whose lifestyle has been in opposition to the principles of heaven. But God sees what we cannot. Would anyone in the ancient world have thought King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would have become a follower of the true God? Yet the Spirit of God worked upon Nebuchadnezzar’s heart. The witness of Daniel and his friends spoke to the king when argument could not. King Manasseh of Judah lived in open rebellion against God for decades. The Bible says he “made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger” (2 Kings 21:6).

However, “when he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him” (2 Chronicles 33:12, 13). And God “received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom” (verse 13).

Saul of Tarsus went from merciless persecutor of Christian believers to apostle, missionary, defender of the faith, and author of the majority of New Testament books. No case is too tough for God. Peter will see his father in heaven. Who are you praying you will see there?