Another story from Youth Prays God Answers.<\/p>\n
John Ash and his daughter Helen were having problems.\u00a0 At first they were small differences; then they grew larger.\u00a0 Communication deteriorated until there was open hostility.\u00a0 Finally Helen could not stand it any longer and moved to an apartment a few blocks away.\u00a0 They still attended the same church and consequently met there.\u00a0 But the estrangement continued.<\/p>\n
John Ash was a painting contractor.\u00a0 His business was going from bad to worse and his wife was increasingly worried over their financial embarrassment.\u00a0 Bills were not being paid, and she knew this could not continue.<\/p>\n
About this time John heard about the prayer classes being conducted in a nearby town and he heard about people who had had unusual answers to prayer as the result of the class.\u00a0 His curiosity was aroused to the place that he made the one hundred mile round trip to investigate for himself, in the hope that it might be the answer to his problems.\u00a0 As John sat and listened to thrilling testimonies of answered prayer, he became aware of one fact: \u201cTo every promise there are conditions\u201d Education pg 258.\u00a0 But it was very clearly emphasised that, \u201cThe conditions met, the promise is unequivocal!\u201d\u00a0 John Ash was unhappy with himself, because he realised he was going to have to meet the conditions if he expected to get an answer.\u00a0 One of the conditions presented was found in Matthew 5:23-25 that says if there is trouble or a misunderstanding with someone, it is our duty to go and make it right and then come and make our request.<\/p>\n
John kept coming to the class each week.\u00a0 He was always thrilled to hear the youth and older people tell of answered prayers.\u00a0 As yet he had not felt he could in good conscience make the request of God because the conditions had not been met.\u00a0 It was a frustrating situation.\u00a0 During this time, his business continued to deteriorate.\u00a0 It looked as if he was going to have to declare bankruptcy.\u00a0 In his desperation he was ready to blame the class for some of his plight.\u00a0 He felt that perhaps the instruction was misleading.\u00a0 John was grasping for some excuse, something to blame for his situation.\u00a0 He realised that none of his prayers were being answered.\u00a0 Every day he could see himself singing deeper and deeper into debt.<\/p>\n
As John thought about his problems, the Holy Spirit impressed him with the stark truth that he had not obeyed the simple command to make wrongs right before expecting God to answer his prayers.\u00a0 It was time for some action.\u00a0 John decided to write to several people with whom he had had problems and quarrels which had left bitter feelings.\u00a0 He decided he would apologise for his part of the problem and ask for forgiveness.\u00a0 After starting to write, John realised that it would take days for the replies to return.\u00a0 In a moment John knew what he would do\u2014he would phone them.<\/p>\n
Before he made the first call, John fell on his knees and surrendered his heart to the Lord as best he knew how.\u00a0 Then he called the three people involved in the problem.\u00a0 To each he apologised and received their forgiveness.\u00a0 John began feeling the thrill of forgiveness.\u00a0 It was great!\u00a0 But just as he was enjoying the exhilaration for forgiveness, he remembered there was one more call he must make, he and Helen were still not speaking to each other.\u00a0 He decided he would take care of that problem a little later in the week.\u00a0\u00a0 There were other problems that demanded his immediate attention.\u00a0 John had been troubled for some time about being a card-carrying Union member.\u00a0 Since he was making things right, he thought he ought to clear the slate.\u00a0 With that, he picked up the telephone and notified the Union that he was pulling out of the organisation.\u00a0 Several other minor matters were adjusted, and John realised that very little remained left to do before he met the conditions to answered prayer.\u00a0 Now that he was no longer a Union member, he could not rely on them for work leads.\u00a0 So he went to the printer and had a flyer printed up that advertised the fact that he was an experienced painter and was anxious to do good work at a fair price.\u00a0 The printing was promised for Friday afternoon, which\u00a0meant that he could distribute the leaflets early Sunday morning.\u00a0 Things were beginning to look good again.\u00a0 John\u2019s faith was growing in spite of the fact that there was no work in sight.<\/p>\n
That Friday night he found himself sitting next to his daughter Helen.\u00a0 He thought several time that he would make things right and ask her forgiveness for the way he had treated her.\u00a0 But each time he attempted to speak, he could not find the words.\u00a0 After the program Helen was busy talking with some of her friends.\u00a0 And before he knew it, she was gone.<\/p>\n
John returned home with a heavy heart. He could not understand why it was he had not just take n the situation in hand and spoken to his daughter.\u00a0 It was going to be such a simple thing.\u00a0 Now it loomed before him as the one things that prevented him from claiming the promises of the Bible.\u00a0 As he lay in bed, tossing and turning, not being able to go to sleep, it became an ever-increasing problem, growing bigger by the minute.\u00a0 Suddenly in the stillness of the night he heard a rap on the front door.\u00a0 He wondered who could be calling at that hour of the night.\u00a0 He stumbled to the door and unlocked it.\u00a0 There, before his eyes stood his daughter.\u00a0 \u201cOh, Helen!\u201d he said, \u201cCome in.\u00a0 I was just thinking about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helen had barely crossed the threshold when she burst into tears and said, \u201cDaddy, I couldn\u2019t stand it any longer.\u00a0 I\u2019ve come to apologise to you for my bitter feelings I\u2019ve held toward you for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a sight that was! Sitting there on the sofa, Helen and Daddy embraced, each forgiving the other and both so thankful for the effecting reconciliation.\u00a0 It was a wonderful experience that brought peace to both hearts.<\/p>\n
Sabbath was a joyous day.\u00a0 Sunday morning John and his son distributed the leaflets.\u00a0 That night John prayed the prayer of reception and felt the assurance that God had heard his prayer.\u00a0 He went to sleep in complete confidence that the morrow would bring an answer\u2014and work.<\/p>\n
He did not have long to wait.\u00a0 The telephone rang early that morning, inviting him to come to work.\u00a0 By noon he was hard at work.\u00a0 Just after he left work, one of the finance companies called to say that they must have their money by that evening or they would come and pick up the fridge.\u00a0 John had done sufficient work by that time to make it possible for him to ask the man for whom he was painting for and advance on the job.\u00a0 Mrs ash went to the finance company and was able to make the payment minutes before the office closed.\u00a0 By Wednesday John had $5000 worth of contacts and was a very happy man.<\/p>\n
A few days later in the prayer meeting he asked \u201cWhy do you suppose God let me get so low before He answered me?\u201d\u00a0 Hugh James answered the question: \u201cDo you supposed it is because we are stubborn sometimes?\u201d\u00a0 How much longer would it have taken if Helen had not responded to the conviction and taken the first step towards reconciliation?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another story from Youth Prays God Answers. John Ash and his daughter Helen were having problems.\u00a0 At first they were small differences; then they grew larger.\u00a0 Communication deteriorated until there was open hostility.\u00a0 Finally Helen could not stand it any longer and moved to an apartment a few blocks away.\u00a0 They still attended the same … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[15,21,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}