I have been praying for my mother for 10 years. Well, my whole family really.

Since I became a Christian, only my little sister has come to faith in Jesus. But my mother, my father, and my two older sisters remained unsaved (not including my extended family). After numerous attempts of gospel-sharing throughout the years, there has been little fruit in seeing them come to Christ.

Fast forward a little-

Ever since I decided to follow Jesus to go to Seminary in California back in November, something has shifted in my mother. Resistant at first, she instead started to question the hardness in her heart towards the Lord and began seeking. She started asking me for books on topics we always talk about: Suffering, the uniqueness of Jesus, and the like..

I have continued to pray for her these past couple of months, but in these last few weeks of praying, the Lord has been stirring up my heart to what He is doing. Every time I pray for my family, there is extra grace when I pray for my mother.

When I start praying for her, it is as if I entered into the heart of God for her. I feel His love for her and His never-giving-up attitude on her life. Along with that, some of the conversations I’ve had with my mother these past few weeks have been startling different compared to ones before.

One predominant thing I am beginning to notice is that her heart towards the Lord is softening.

This, I realized when the Lord opened a door for me to spend some one-on-one time with my mother one last time before I left for California on Thursday evening. We were sitting in her study room at home and we just began talking about Jesus and faith. I won’t delve into the details of that conversation but all I can say was that there was so much supernatural grace in that room. Her responses were not like years before- a hard response, an unbelieving question, doubtful resentment.

She was asking questions like she was really seeking. The Lord prompted me to ask this question several times with her throughout the conversation. At every turn of our talk, the Holy Spirit would always prompt to ask it again:

The question is, Mom, are you part of God’s family?

Conviction always hit. I could feel it in my spirit from her. The conversation continued and I asked her if she was ready to receive Christ. She said she wasn’t, but she said she was close. I left her with instructions, upon my departure, on what to say before God if I was not there to lead her. I told her she must do two things. Repent and believe.

She understood what I was saying, and I promptly told my little sister about our conversation a few minutes later. We rejoiced and prayed to the Lord together and asked again for his mercy to open the spiritual eyes of my mother.

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I’m very thankful for all the blessings the Lord is doing in and around my life. I know it is not because I am great; I’m sooo weak. But the Lord is so gracious to all who call on Him! I am wrought with what I would be if my mother came to faith in Christ. I think I would literally drop on my knees and cry with overflowing joy.

But I have yet to see it. She is so close, but not yet there. And so, I continue to strive in the place of prayer.

To all who are reading this if you could spend a minute or two in prayer for my mother, it would mean the world to me.

Grace to you all.

(Leaving for Cali in 2 days!)