Ive been praying for and telling my MIL about God for years, she claims to be a Christian, but every time the name of Jesus is spoken she immediately gets defensive and angry. She disagrees with or is clueless about all the major doctrines of God and doesn't even wanted to know the truth. The minute you say, read your Bible or go to church, she's got a million excuses and a long list of greviences towards the church. Well, her and her boyfriend came to our house the other night unexpectedly and I was at first a little put off, but realized that this never happens, she's not the kind of MIL that just drops in unannounced so I let it go. While they were here, she suddenly brought up the subject of God and was basically looking at me (she always looks at me) in anger about how "people can sin all their lives, rapists and murderers and then get a free pass if they accept God in the end." I started to speak, but my husband knew exactly where the conversation was going to go (angry argunent from her and me spinning my wheels) so he stepped in and hushed both me and her and said his peace. She quickly left after that but the rest of the afternoon, my mind was wrestling about her. I kept going over in my head what was said, and what should have been said and I spoke to God about how frustrating she was and asked Him to send somebody-ANYBODY that she would listen to and I went to bed. The next morning I had the same sick stomach feeling about her and sat down to pray and before I knew it I found myself typing out a very long text message to her. At first not intending to send it, but before I got to the end, I knew I had to send it or all hope would be lost for her. I prayed before sending it that if God did not want me to send it that He would make the message fail to send and I would let it go. With trembling hands, I sent the message fully expecting all you know what to break loose. I sent a few friends that are prayer warriors a copy of the message and asked them to pray for me as it was about to get crazy bc my MIL is not the kind of person to accept criticism. At all. And she's always looking for an argument to have so I just knew she'd either call and chew me out or have a nice long text message of her own to send me right back. But she didn't do any of that. She simply said she was not mad at me and sent me a heart emoji, I told her I loved her like my own mama and she said she loved me like her own child. Then she told me how good my bread was bc I had made them a loaf to take home while they were over (Christa's recipe TY!). That may not seem like much, but for who she is, that was amazing! I spent the next part of my day singing to God with tears in my eyes bc I finally said all the things that I had always needed to say to her, I had finally laid it all out boldly instead of cautiously like I had in the past and maybe even brutally bc her soul is at stake! She will perish If somebody doesn't tell her like it is! I'm going to post what I sent, it's long as is this whole post, but maybe someone here needs to get the courage up to just tell somebody the honest truth full stop! May the Holy Spirit direct you!
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Hey, Im gonna go out on a limb here and just be honest with you. I love you dearly, otherwise I wouldn't say this bc honestly, I get nothing but anxiety when this subject comes up around you. I don't like talking to you about God bc you get defensive and I don't like arguing, but, your soul is at stake here. I didn't sleep hardly a wink last night after you left bc all I could think about was what you said over and over. I understand that you don't think it's fair for terrible sinners to get into heaven if they repent. I can relate to that bc I've had those thoughts myself, but these are God's rules, not mine. Jesus paid the penalty for all sin, yes even the rapists and murderers, and what a horrific payment He had to pay on the cross. God is so wonderfully merciful that He will forgive even the worst sins, and equally God is so perfectly just that He will punish even the smallest sins in hell. I don't know if many murderers and rapists ever repent, but if it wasn't for 1 murderer repenting we would not have the Word of God bc Paul was a murderer and he became the ambassador to the gentiles (us). Anyways, that's not the real issue here, God is the judge of those people whom we tend to think are worse sinners. We can only worry about ourselves and try to show others while we are still alive. In the end, God is the judge. When you put some people into a group and say they don't deserve salvation, you are forgetting that you are also in their group bc none of us deserve salvation, none of us deserve it even a little more than anyone else. Jesus said, "there is none righteous, no not even one." No exceptions, not even you. He made sure to put the "no, not even one" in there for people like you bc He knew there would be those who thought they were somehow an exception, somehow different. You listed all the things you haven't done, but we are not judged by what we haven't done, we are only judged by what we have done. God's standard is moral perfection. Without perfection, nobody gets into heaven. And since nobody is perfect, we all need God's mercy. It only comes through Jesus. Not just a knowledge of Jesus bc even the demons know God and fear and tremble, but a complete life shaking, life changing encounter with God. Just to be honest with you, I don't see any evidence that you are truly saved, I see a lot of pride and self righteousness. You can go to church your whole life, you can do all kinds of good, you can pray a million prayers, but unless you have been born again, you will not enter heaven. Jesus said these things, not me. I am not trying to judge you, I am trying to shake you awake, God is the one who has said all these things and He commands His followers to tell others. I know this will make you mad, which is why I always get so much anxiety whenever God comes up, but I truly love you enough to tell you the truth. May I offend you to heaven rather than flatter you to hell. Many will say to God in the end, Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name and do many miracles and He will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. I sure do not want you to hear that on judgement day, but I do not see the evidence that God says a born again person should have. I see you become irritated and defensive the second the name of Jesus is mentioned, I see you defend sin like abortion and homosexuality and call it a more acceptable name. Those who truly know Jesus love to hear His name, love to talk about Him and love to see people forgiven no matter how bad a sinner they are and they are in agreement with what He teaches. If you don't agree with Jesus on His teaching, how can you be His follower? Some things are hard to accept, but if our tone is accusatory and demanding an answer from God, then we are putting an indictment against His goodness, that's a dangerous place to be. God warns us all to make sure of our salvation, we all have to check to make sure we are truly one of His. One other thing here, is that my sin and your sin, although we are tempted to think is not as bad as others, put Jesus on the cross all the same. If the worse sin that ever was committed was just the stuff me and you have done, then Jesus still would have had to endure the cross. It wasn't just the pain of death He had to endure, it was also God the Father's wrath. There is no such thing as a white lie, that's the world's word for lies to make light of them, yet my lies and your lies nailed our precious Creator to the cross. We make light of some sin, but those sins are why Jesus had to die. Please don't harden your heart against what I'm saying bc of who I am. I know there is tension between us, another reason why I get a lump in my throat whenever I feel the Holy Spirit nudging me to speak to you about God. Honestly, I wish I could let this go and not worry about it, but my love for you is greater than the anxiety I get. In case you're thinking who does this little girl think she is, well I'm absolutely nobody and a terrible sinner who would have went to hell, but I know the Savior and I'm here broken hearted for this conversation trying desperately to show you the truth. My own mom won't listen to me. My own grandma-mama won't listen to me. Nobody that I hold dear will listen to me and I fear for them, I fear for you because I know what God has said, and we are all going to face Him one day. This notion that we can walk down an aisle and say a script and have salvation is dragging millions into hell and it's unbiblical. It's almost impossible to wake a false convert up, I'm screaming at you in love, please wake up. As I send this, I feel like I could throw up bc I'm filled with anxiety, but Love is my reason. So if you're angry at me then so be it, I can't stand to see my loved ones lost. If you want to know what the evidence is of true salvation is, I'm happy to tell you, if not then I'm praying for you. And for your boyfriend too.
Thank you for praying!
Amen and thank you for sharing. May God bless your loving boldness. Praying for her and her boyfriend's salvation. 💕
Thank you for sharing. Like Joshua, be strong and courageous. May your words and obedience be the seeds of her faith and the Holy Spirit work on her heart. I look forward to hearing her testimony soon. ❤️