THE EFFECTIVE PRAYERS OF A FAITHFUL AND BELIEVING MOTHER

"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:24 ESV
"The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." James 5:16 ESV

I love to the stories and biographies of Christians throughout history. Reading the lives of other Christians has been a great means of grace in my life. There is both scriptural and historical support for what I am saying. Hebrews 13:7 tells us to, "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith." Hebrews 6;12 says, "Do not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Jonathan Edwards wrote in his introduction to the journals of David Brainerd, "There are two ways of representing and recommending true religion and virtue to the world; the one, by doctrine and precept; the other, by instance and example."

I am encouraged both by Scripture and by the testimony of church history that God wills for us to be inspired and guided by the study of the lives of great men and women. He uses their lives to give us inspiration, hope, and guidance.

I have been very encouraged by a mother who lived in fourth century what is now called Algeria named Monica. you have probably heard of her son, the great bishop, Augustine of Hippo. She is one of history's great examples of James 5:16, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Her life could truly be characterized as being the life of a righteous woman who fervently, persistently, and continually prayed. John Piper says that her prayer "became the school where he(Augustine) learned the deep things about Jesus words in John 16:24, "Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

For example, she had an unfaithful and unbelieving husband. She stayed married to him, never quarreled with him about it, and instead Monica prayed for him. Augustine in his Confessions says that she looked to God "to show him mercy, hoping that chastity would come with faith."

God gave Monica both perseverance and the conversion of her husband a year before he died!Augustine writes, "In the end she won her husband for you O Lord as a convert in the very last days of his life on earth."

Monica also prayed for 31 years for her son Augustine. She loved him so much and oh how discouraging it must have been for her to see her son drift away from her Christian faith into immorality as well as heretical views like Manicheanism. Oh how many sons and daughters can break their mothers and fathers hearts! Augustine writes of his mother, "She shed more tears over my spiritual death than other mothers have shed for the bodily death of a son."

In her despair she sought a bishops counsel who encouraged her about her wayward son. His counsel is beneficial to any and all grieving parents over their children. "Leave him alone. Just pray to God for him. From his own reading he will discover his mistakes and the depth of his profanity...Leave me and go in peace. It cannot be that the son of these tears should be lost."

When he was sixteen Augustine snuck away from his mother in Carthage and sailed for Rome breaking her heart. All she had left were her lonely tears and prayers for her son just like the old bishop said. She prayed that God would stop Augustine from going to Carthage. But God did not answer those specific prayers for that situation but He most certainly answered the tearful prayers of a lifetime. Augustine writes that God "did what was closet to her heart. You did with me what she always asked You to do."

What did God do? Augustine was converted after his mother had prayed for thirty one years! Augustine writes of what God had done in answer to Monica's prayers,

"She was jubilant with triumph and glorified You who are powerful enough, and more than powerful enough, to carry out Your purpose beyond all of our hopes and dreams. For she saw that You had granted her far than she had ever hoped to find more than she used to ask in her tearful prayers and plaintive lamentations...and You turned her sadness into rejoicing, into joy far fuller than her dearest wish..."

What a lesson for Augustine and all of us to learn about the triumph of fervent, persistent, and prevailing prayer. Oh the preciousness of a faithful, believing, and persevering mother's prayer.
Perhaps you are broken hearted over a family member or loved one. I personally have three children and a daughter in law that I am praying for their conversion. I will remember the tearful, broken hearted, yet praying mother, Monica; and remember the words of Jesus in
John 16:24, "Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

Praying for my wayward children along like Monica,
Pastor Bill