Several years ago I led a men’s prayer breakfast group, and in that group we had a fella who had been making a wonderful life change. He had been transformed from a rough, hard man to a softer man who worked diligently to think of people besides himself. His wife was a loving and patient woman who had stayed with him through tough times – but she always had believed in him and had been consistent in her prayers for him. Those prayers had been heard and answered, and the transformation that was taking place in Dan’s life was striking. To this day, it is still one of the most beautiful things I have ever had the privilege to see God do in a person’s life.
I thoroughly enjoyed Dan’s company. He had a great sense of humor and was genuine. You knew where you stood with him. He had a great work ethic, and he loved his family. As God had been doing a work in his heart, he was able to show his loved ones what they really meant to him. It was something he worked hard at, because it didn’t come naturally to him. Yet he knew it was so very important to his family to hear it from him, and to have him back those words up with actions. He hadn’t been that type of husband and father for several years, but he had become that person.
Dan was a person I came to admire greatly. It wasn’t because of what he had done in the past. He would be the first to tell you he had been a lousy fella in his earlier days. It was because of how he had come to a place of total surrender to God in his life, and actively sought to have God create in him a clean heart. Dan was a person who asked God to help him be a better man, and then followed after God to be that man. He clung to Jesus and allowed those character traits of Jesus to rub off onto him.
I’m reminded of Dan when I read John chapter 15.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
Dan had lived outside of God. He wasn’t happy. He didn’t enjoy life. He didn’t enjoy his family. One day Dan made a decision to live his life differently. He had come to the place where he realized his life was a downward spiral that he was not pulling out of. Dan knew that there was something better than the life he had been living. He called out to God, and he was answered.
When the nation of Israel was in captivity in Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah spoke these words in a letter he sent to them:
Jeremiah 29:11-14
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
Those words were sent as an encouragement to a people who were still living in captivity. They are God’s words to all of us who were held in captivity to sin.
In Dan’s case, he came to understand that God didn’t think of him as a loss. He saw that God didn’t look at him as someone to despise and turn His back on. He saw Dan in his sin and in His love for him made a sacrifice to give Dan the way to be in fellowship with Him. God had a future in mind for Dan. He had high hopes for Dan – just as He did for you and me.
Dan made the decision to call on God and seek after Him with all he had. God met him where he was at and came alongside Dan to take him where He had for him. Jesus walked Dan back from his captivity before my eyes, and it was such a beautiful sight.
If you have loved ones in your life that are like Dan was, don’t give up on them. Keep them in prayer, asking that their eyes would be opened to the love God has for them, and the hope that belongs to them in Him. I know God can change a person’s heart. I saw him do it in Dan. I’ve watched Him do it in other people’s lives as well. It may take years, but it can happen.
If you are like Dan was and are looking for something more than the life that you currently have, I’d encourage you to follow Dan’s example and reach out to God. God will meet you where you are – but He has no intention of leaving you there. He has a future full of hope waiting for you, and desires to walk alongside you to help you reach all that He has for you.
