RUBY'S PRAYER
Ruby Hamilton, a
businesswoman in her fifties, was stunned at the loss of her husband of 32
years in a car accident. Her anger and disappointment went deeper than a more
typical expression of grief though. She had become a follower of Christ in her
late twenties, but her husband didn't share her newfound interest in spiritual
things. Nonetheless, she had set about praying for him feverishly and
unceasingly that he would come to know the Lord. And one day when she was
praying, she felt a wave of peace wash over her, and that still small voice
assuring her that her husband would be okay. She eagerly awaited the day when
her husband surrender his life to Jesus. And now this.
What do you do when
faith doesn't make sense? When God doesn't seem to be answering or opening
doors or being found? Ruby Hamilton stopped living for God.
Roger Simmons was
hitchhiking his way home. He would never forget the date - May 7th. His heavy
suitcase was making him tired and he was anxious to take off that army uniform
once and for all. Flashing the thumb to the oncoming car, he lost hope when he saw
it was a black, sleek new Cadillac. To his surprise the car stopped.
The passenger door
swung open. He ran toward the car, tossed his suitcase in the back and thanked
the handsome, well-dressed man as he slid into the front seat. "Going home
for keeps?"
"Sure am."
"Well, you're
in luck if you're going to Chicago."
"Not quite that
far - do you live in Chicago?"
"I have a
business there, the driver said. My name is Hamilton."
They chatted for a
while, and then Roger, a Christian, felt a compulsion to share his faith with
this fiftyish, apparently successful business man. But he kept putting it off,
till he realized that he was now just 30 minutes from his home. It was now or never.
"Mr. Hamilton,
I would like to talk to you about something very important." Then he
simply told Mr. Hamilton about the plan of salvation and ultimately asked him
if he would like to receive Jesus as his savior and Lord.
The Cadillac pulled
over to the side of the road. Roger expected that he was about to get thrown
out of the car. Instead, the businessman bowed his head and received Christ,
then thanked Roger "This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to
me."
Five years went by.
Roger married, had a couple of kids and a business of his own. Packing his
suitcase for a trip to Chicago he found a small white business card that had
been given to him by Hamilton five years previous. In Chicago, he looked up
Hamilton enterprises. The receptionist told him that it was impossible to see
Mr. Hamilton, but he could see Mrs. Hamilton. A little confused, he was ushered
into a beautiful office where he found himself facing a keen-eyed woman in her
fifties.
She extended her
hand "You knew my husband?"
Roger told her about
how Hamilton had picked him up while he was hitchhiking home after the war.
"Can you tell me what day that was?"
"Sure it was
May 7th, five years ago, the day I was discharged from the army."
"Anything
special about that day," she asked.
He hesitated, not
knowing if he should mention how he shared the message of Jesus with her
husband. "Mrs. Hamilton, I explained the gospel to your husband that day.
He pulled over to the side of the road and wept against the steering wheel. He
gave his life to Christ that day."
Explosive sobs shook
her body. Finally getting a grip on herself, she sobbed, "I had prayed for
my husband's salvation for years. I believed God would save him."
"Where is your
husband, Ruby?"
"He's dead. He
was in a car crash after he let you out of the car. He never got home. You see,
I thought God had not kept his promise. I stopped living for God five years ago
because I thought God had not kept his word!"
(Considerable influence for this message came from John Piper's "The
Spring of Persistent Public Love", DesiringGod.org. From a sermon by
Bret Toman, Power to Live the Golden Rule, 1/3/2011)
Keep Praying,
Pastor Mike
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