Loved to Faith

“For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.” 2 Timothy 1:5, NASB Updated.

Both my mother and grandmother loved God deeply. As a boy, I listened and learned about Christianity, but I was not interested. I thought that being good was good enough. It wasn’t until I was 12 years old that I began taking steps toward following Jesus.

I watched both my mother and grandmother having difficulties in their lives; what surprised me is that they continued to love God despite their troubles. I followed my friends in drinking and did other things that I knew weren’t good, but my mom kept loving me and encouraging me to follow Jesus.

My father had an addiction problem with drugs. He was often verbally abusive to mom. I couldn’t understand how she put up with all he did to her, but she kept on loving him. It seemed to me that the God of my mother and grandmother must be very powerful for her to have such love.

The addiction became so bad that my father had to be put into the hospital because of dementia. Mom stayed by his side. She and grandmother prayed over him, and he began to improve. His addiction got better. Again I was amazed at God’s powerful answers to their prayers.

As an 18-year-old I decided that I wanted the love of God in my life that I saw in my mother and grandmother. While I had learned a lot about Christianity, it was not the learning that brought me to faith.

While many people shared with me and encouraged me to follow Jesus, that was not what made me bow to God. I guess you could say I was loved to the faith by my mother and grandmother. The more I watched them follow Jesus, the more I wanted what they had.

Pray that:

Northern Thai believers will have persevering love for their non-believing friends and family. Oftentimes it takes years of living out the faith before their loved ones become open to consider the Gospel.

Toy will be able to show forth the same supernatural love of God to the hill tribes of Northern Thailand that his mother and grandmother showed to him.

God will bless Toy’s ministry with joy, power, perseverance, and love.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.