(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

You watch the choices that they make,

A weight of sadness does your heart ache.

If you could open up their eyes,

You’d rip away the devil’s disguise.

 

You’d show them where their future leads,

How he robs, destroys, their soul to bleed.

You see the trouble they are storing up,

That one day will be the cup they sup.

 

But choices are our gift from GOD,

Each one has chosen the path they trod.

Yet mercy bound in grace HE offers,

Forgiveness poured from HIS endless coffers.

 

So seeming helpless must you stand by,

And call out for them, your prayer a cry.

The arm of man it cannot save,

Nor persuasive words their deception assuage.

 

Yet hope is bound upon the Cross,

Only CHRIST can give Life for our loss.

So take your loved ones to HIS feet,

And watch with joy as their need does HE meet!

 

Yield your grief into HIS grasp,

Don’t buckle in sorrow but for them ask,

That HE would draw them home to HIM,

Would wash them clean, remove their sin!

 

From the deepest hole and the darkest place,

Can HE snatch them up into HIS embrace.

HE redeems most wretched of souls,

Gives them HIS heart, and restores them whole!

 

 

 

 

thought for the journey ….

Aren’t you forever grateful that ALMIGHTY GOD loves our loved ones immeasurably more than we ever could? Aren’t you glad beyond expression that salvation was HIS idea, and that The SON of GOD came into the world to save sinners - not the ‘righteous’ but sinners! (And that category encompasses every last one of us - all humanity! Romans 3:10 “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not even one;’”)

 

No matter how wretched, how hopeless things may look to us, remember that HE is The GOD of hope - and as long as we draw breath lets pray, getting in line with HIS will, HIS desire for our lost loved ones. For we know that when we pray in agreement with HIS will - HE answers!

We serve a SAVIOR who lives beyond eternity, who created this thing called time, who is above, outside, its limitations - and our faithful & faith filled prayers will go on even beyond our life, should HE take us home before we see our prayers answered! We do not pray in vain - to a GOD who is deaf or helpless, or unmoved by the plight of our wayward kin - we pray to a Living GOD, a merciful GOD, a powerful GOD, a SAVIOR who demonstrated the lengths HE would go to to rescue us - even the most ‘hopeless’ are not beyond the reach of HIS Glorious redemption, the Power of the Cross of JESUS CHRIST!

 

Romans 2:4 “Or do you despise the riches of HIS goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of GOD leads you to repentance?”

2 Peter 3:9 “The LORD is not slack concerning HIS promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

James 5:16b “…The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”