Don’t give up… On them!

This week I went home to visit with family. I had a purpose. The sudden trip wasn’t because I wanted to go, I felt in my heart that I needed to go. With the passing of a relative due to a heart attack, I felt that I really needed to go and share my heart with my father about his health. I wanted to go and plead my case and hope that he would want to change his current circumstances.

Now my aunt who passed from a heart attack wasn’t the first sibling of his to pass in that way. In fact, a few of his siblings, some younger, and some older have passed from heart attacks.

A little backstory on my father. He’s been smoking for longer then I have been born. He had to take early retirement due to his heart. He’s had a few heart attacks which have lead to stints in his heart. I truly believe, in fact, I know, he is still alive and breathing due to my mother’s prayers and the grace of God.

My mother every morning and every night goes to her room and intercedes for my family. She is a true intercessor. If you follow me on Facebook, you have to go back and read the status I wrote about her praying a few days ago.

Let’s fast forward. My father does everything he is not supposed to be doing according to the doctor. He smokes from the moment he gets up to the time he goes to bed. He drinks a whole pot of coffee a day, he eats sweets, and watches T.V. all day. All these things according to the doctor, he shouldn’t be doing. My father has the mentality, if he is going to leave this Earth, at least he will go how he wants too.

I pleaded my case with my father, asked him to stop smoking, and try to live a better lifestyle. My reasoning’s to him were that I refuse to get a phone call from states away about his health. And that I want him around to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and be able to see his grandkids. He finally agreed to try and change his ways.

Great! I set up a routine for him that will help break his habits. I put together an essential oil treatment for him from morning to night. I tried to get him a gym membership so that he could get out of the house. Then set up a grocery list of the things he needs to buy to help with a healthy routine.

Well, none of this worked. He tried one time. Not one day, one time. It was so frustrating. I felt like I cared more about his life then he did. One day, I had my breaking point. I had a little situation with another relative that broke my heart; because I moved to follow the call of God on my life, I was felt by this person that I had abandoned my family for another family.

I was in tears after I left this situation. If you follow me, you know how hard it is for me to leave my family. One of my frequent prayers to God is for me to be settled somewhere preferably back home. But… God always has me moving across country. When I gave God my yes, it meant at all costs, even if I have to move.

I was dealing with that situation, then I pulled back up to my parent’s house and my father is outside smoking a cigarette. I tell my mom “dad, doesn’t care about his life, he doesn’t even try.” My mom says “I know! I’ve tried for many years, but he doesn’t listen.” I told her I don’t know how she does it, she said “only by the strength of God.”

I leave to get myself together so my parents don’t see me crying. I’m tear-city at this moment. I had nowhere to go, so I went to a nearby casino parking garage and had a conversation with God. I’m crying and venting to him about both situations, how my heart is so broken and hurt over these two situations.

In a gentle voice, He says to me “How do you think I feel when my people reject me and the things of me?” I cried even more, because although my heart was so hurt over my family, it compares nothing to the heartbreak that God feels over his children rejecting him. How many times do we tell God we will stop doing this or that and turn around and do it again?

It was like God allowed me to feel a tiny fraction of what He feels. He continued to speak to me and tell me that He needed me to go and see what my prayer assignments were for my family. He said to me that He needed me to pray this through, that I cannot do it on my own. I have to do it from afar and put my hope and trust in Him.

I tell you all of this to say, don’t give up on that person you are believing for a turnaround. It may not look like they are trying to change, but we need to change our focus from the outer appearance to the inner appearance and ask God to flood their life and their lifestyle. God’s change starts from the inner being and moves to the outer being.

As much as I wanted to quit on both of my family members, I knew I couldn’t. I may not have been able to do it physically, but I can do it spiritually. God hears our prayers. He see’s our tears. There is no way that God will allow our prayers to go unheard or unseen. I know this is a battle that I cannot do in my own strength.

God is going to have to invade their lives for change to come. We have to fight the battle from afar sometimes. We cannot give up on them, because God didn’t give up on us!

I share this very tender subject in hopes that your perspective will change when you feel like giving up on those close to you. We cannot give up on them; we must not! God put us in their life to fight the battle they cannot fight themselves; in their own strength. Our prayers may be the only thing that is keeping them alive.

So… The next time you feel like giving up on them… DON’T! God may have you there for a reason.