Billy Graham’s Story About An African Mother Who Prayed
Let me share this story to show you the position we have with the Lord in prayer. Billy Graham shares this story of an African mother who came to Christ and grew in her commitment and devotion to the Lord. She was a woman that prayed all the time and talked of her Jesus. As so often happens, however, this alienated her from her husband, and over the years he grew to despise and hate her new devotion to Christ. His anger and bitterness reached a climax when he decided to kill his wife, their two children and himself, unable to live in misery of conviction in his home. But he needed a motive to kill his family. So He decided that he would accuse her of stealing his precious keys - the keys on his chain were to the bank, the house, and the car. Early one afternoon he left his bank and headed for the Tavern. His route took him across a footbridge extended over the headwaters of the Nile River. He paused above the river and dropped the keys. He spent all afternoon drinking and carousing. Later that afternoon, his wife went to the fish market to buy the evening meal. She purchased a large Nile perch. As she was gutting the fish, to her astonishment, in it’s belly were her husband’s keys. She wondered how they could have gotten in the fish? What were the circumstances? She did not know; but she cleaned them up and hung them on the hook. Sufficiently drunk, the enraged African man came home that night and pounded open the front door shouting, “Woman, where are my keys?” Already in bed, she got up, picked them off the hook in the bedroom, and handed them to her husband. When he saw the keys, he was so shocked that by his own testimony he immediately became sober and was instantly on his knees sobbing, asked for forgiveness, and confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. That African mother saved the life of her family because she understood her glorious position in prayer. Boldness before the Lord. My friends, Aletheia Baptist Fellowship will not grow because of good administration. Aletheia Baptist Fellowship will not grow because of good music or good preaching. Aletheia Baptist Fellowship will not grow and be the church God wants us to be because of programs or activities. If Aletheia Baptist Fellowship ever amounts to anything great for God it will be because we have had a vision to be passionate in prayer. Do you see it? I want you to hear this last thing. Vision without action is an hallucination. What will you do?
From a sermon by Tim Adams, Vision for Prayer, 12/1/2009