Brendan

This weekend there is a farewell party for my nephew Brendan who will be departing for an LDS mission to Madagascar. Most of my family will be traveling to Utah to celebrate and send him off.

I will not be attending. In the past I attended several church meetings commemorating different events in the lives of my nieces and nephews. My heart was that they would know that I loved them no matter what choices they made.

It back fired on me because my presence was seen as approval of their decisions and lead to heartache when my son, because of the familiarity, decided to participate in the activities, join their church and comply with their requirements in order to receive acceptance from the family.

Since then I have never attended another function related to their beliefs. My son and I have spoke about this many times especially when his own daughters had events related to their church that I did not attend.

I told him that I was wrong before. I had been compromising to please my family and now regardless of what they think, I will stand up for what I believe and I will not support their events.

Throughout the last few weeks leading up to Brendan’s farewell I have been asking God what to say and pray concerning him. Yesterday in my study called Christ Alone, I received a very bold answer.

Galatians 1: 6-10 reads:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

The apostle Paul was the writer of Galatians and he was described as being a very zealous man. Before coming to know Christ he persecuted Christians and venomously pursued them.

Then Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and he became blind for three days. In his blindness he found truth. God then used his zealous personality to go out and lead others to Christ! As a result the report was made that  “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”  And they praised God because of him. (vs 23-24)

That is my prayer for Brendan – that he will encounter Christ in such a mighty way that it will transform him and he will be used for God’s glory. That he will return and with the same zeal that is in his character – teach his family and friends the truth and they will all turn to God and praise Him for what He has done for them.

My Prayer

Father, I do thank you for family. Lord You know that most of my family is lost. Help me to reach them for You. I pray that Brendan will become a might warrior for You and that he will reach family members with Your truth. Transform him Lord and help him know the truth for himself. Let him turn from a people pleaser to a God pleaser. In Jesus’ name, amen.