What to Do When You're the Only Person Praying for Your Family

Some Christians are the only person in their extended family who prays for the rest of them. There's the spouse who doesn't believe, and the grown kids who walked away from the faith they were raised in. Somehow the job of bringing that whole family before the Lord has fallen to one person, and that person is you. Nobody assigned it. You just love them, and you seem to be the only one on your knees. It can feel lonely and pointless, like your prayers go up and nothing comes down.This episode opens with a bored, unbelieving teenager named Hudson Taylor, who wandered into his father's library and pulled a gospel tract off the shelf. What he didn't know was that his mother, miles away that week, had shut herself in a room and was praying for his salvation, hour after hour, until she felt sure God had heard. Bart shares his own family's version: his mom, the only believer in her family, watched her sister trust Christ in her final days before passing away.There's a moment in Acts that speaks right to the lone believer. A jailer in Philippi asked Paul how to be saved, and Paul told him, in Acts 16:31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." By morning the man's whole household had believed and been baptized. One person's faith became the doorway for an entire family. That is a pattern all through Scripture and history. God loves to reach a whole household through the faith of one member of it, the one who prays, the one who keeps believing when nobody else does. He is not put off by being outnumbered in your family tree.So if you're the only one praying, hear this: your prayers are not vanishing. You can't see what God is doing behind the closed doors of the people you love, but He is doing something. He is patient with them in ways that would exhaust you, and He is at work in rooms you will never walk into. Hudson Taylor sat alone in that library, sure no one was thinking of his soul, while two women prayed him into the kingdom. He read a line about the finished work of Christ, and he gave his life to God right there. He felt completely alone, and he was completely surrounded. You may feel the same, and heaven may be fuller of your requests than you know.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why being the only one praying for your family is more common, and more powerful, than it feelsWhat Acts 16:31 shows about God saving a whole household through one person's faithHow to keep praying for your family without giving up, even when you can't see anything happeningYou may be the only one praying, but you are not praying alone. God reaches whole families through the faith of one, so keep going.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/308Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.