Dear sisters (brothers)......
Many of us are praying for the salvation of our loved ones and friends and oftentimes wondering how long more before they will come to believe. Here is a story which has blessed me much and I would like to share it with you. May it encourage us to keep praying and witnessing and trying even though the doors may appear shut.
"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Jeremiah 23:29
Have you ever visited the quarry where the stone cutters are at work cleaving the rocks into their proper shape to be fitted into the buidling? Observe how the workman placed his heavy chisel on the rock, and then bring down the heavy hammer again and again upon it. The rock did not cleave at the first blow. One blow, two blows, three, a dozen and no (seeming) result. And then some more blows, twenty, thirty, forty, and then, at the forty-fifth blow, the rock yields and falls apart as though it had never been united. It was the forty-fifth blow that did it. Or was it? Ah no, it took forty-four other blows which caused the particles within to shift for the final cleavage. There could be no forty-fifth blow without the first blow and all the rest. There was no visible result till the last blow fell, but each blow caused some change. Had the workman become discouraged at the forty-fourth blow, the job would have failed, as if not a single blow had fallen.
Have you been praying for and dealing with a loved one, trying to win him to Christ? Have you given him Scripture after Scripture and prayed and prayed? Are you now tempted to give up, saying, "What's the use?" Remember, every blow does something, for His Word "shall not return void." Don't give up! Your prayers for that son or daughter, that unsaved parents or siblings, that unsaved wife or husband, that unsaved friends, will be answered if you just patiently apply the hammer of the Word. The next blow - it may be the forty-fifth -- and the rock may split! Patience brother, patience sister -- keep witnessing!
Be assured that God's Word is certain and powerful and cannot fail, even though you cannot always see its secret workings.
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Hebrews 4:12,13 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."