Ready to give up on praying for your friend or family?
Maybe Winnie's story will change your mind.
A couple of years ago, Joseph M. Stowell, former president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, was speaking at the great Keswick Conference in England, a three-week annual gathering of people seeking a deeper relationship with Christ.
One Sunday, he was about to speak in a church at the outskirts of Keswick when the church pastor asked a woman to come up front and lead in prayer and give her testimony.
The woman said she was a shopkeeper in a deli and gift shop in Keswick several years before when she met a visitor at Keswick named Winnie. Winnie visited the shop every day for coffee and the shop assistant struck up a friendship with her.
Stowell says the shopkeeper "admitted that there was something different about this woman, and that at the end of the week she felt sorry that her new friend, Winnie, was leaving to go back to her home".
"Every year she waited to see Winnie again during the conference weeks, but as the years passed she never came back," writes Stowell in his book Simply Jesus and You.
"Several years after she had met Winnie, however, she began to have a drawing in her spirit to Jesus that was so strong that it was almost physical in its power. After trying to dismiss it, she found that it persisted in increasing strength, until one day she wandered into a church.
"After meeting with the pastor, she accepted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour."
A couple of years after she became a believer, a woman walked into the Keswick deli and gift shop and asked her if she remembered Winnie from many years before.
She lit up at the memory of Winnie and mentioned to the visitor that years after meeting Winnie, she had become a follower of Jesus.
"The lady on the other side of the counter gasped in joy, and said she couldn't wait to tell Winnie, since Winnie had prayed for her salvation every day without fail since she left Keswick years before."
Stowell says he could hardly hold back the tears as he heard this testimony.
Winnie had prayed every day for years "until the enemy finally said, 'I give up, I can't hold on to her against the power of these persistent prayers.'" The way had been cleared for Jesus to draw her to him.
Then, the woman finished her story by saying: "And I am so glad that Winnie is here this morning."
Winnie stood up to enthusiastic applause from the normally reserved English congregation.
After the service, Stowell went up to Winnie and her friend and said that Satan must have had a tight grip on the shopkeeper's life in order to take such a long time to become a believer.
"I cannot tell you how strong his grip was on my life!" she said.
Stowell writes that Winnie is a model of what it means to pray for people to become followers of Christ.
"She persevered in long-distance prayer without a clue of what was going on in the spiritual underworld. The Spirit energized her undaunted commitment to the welfare of others and the battle was won."
God rewards persistence in the cause of Christ.
Maybe Winnie's story will change your mind.
A couple of years ago, Joseph M. Stowell, former president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, was speaking at the great Keswick Conference in England, a three-week annual gathering of people seeking a deeper relationship with Christ.
One Sunday, he was about to speak in a church at the outskirts of Keswick when the church pastor asked a woman to come up front and lead in prayer and give her testimony.
The woman said she was a shopkeeper in a deli and gift shop in Keswick several years before when she met a visitor at Keswick named Winnie. Winnie visited the shop every day for coffee and the shop assistant struck up a friendship with her.
Stowell says the shopkeeper "admitted that there was something different about this woman, and that at the end of the week she felt sorry that her new friend, Winnie, was leaving to go back to her home".
"Every year she waited to see Winnie again during the conference weeks, but as the years passed she never came back," writes Stowell in his book Simply Jesus and You.
"Several years after she had met Winnie, however, she began to have a drawing in her spirit to Jesus that was so strong that it was almost physical in its power. After trying to dismiss it, she found that it persisted in increasing strength, until one day she wandered into a church.
"After meeting with the pastor, she accepted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour."
A couple of years after she became a believer, a woman walked into the Keswick deli and gift shop and asked her if she remembered Winnie from many years before.
She lit up at the memory of Winnie and mentioned to the visitor that years after meeting Winnie, she had become a follower of Jesus.
"The lady on the other side of the counter gasped in joy, and said she couldn't wait to tell Winnie, since Winnie had prayed for her salvation every day without fail since she left Keswick years before."
Stowell says he could hardly hold back the tears as he heard this testimony.
Winnie had prayed every day for years "until the enemy finally said, 'I give up, I can't hold on to her against the power of these persistent prayers.'" The way had been cleared for Jesus to draw her to him.
Then, the woman finished her story by saying: "And I am so glad that Winnie is here this morning."
Winnie stood up to enthusiastic applause from the normally reserved English congregation.
After the service, Stowell went up to Winnie and her friend and said that Satan must have had a tight grip on the shopkeeper's life in order to take such a long time to become a believer.
"I cannot tell you how strong his grip was on my life!" she said.
Stowell writes that Winnie is a model of what it means to pray for people to become followers of Christ.
"She persevered in long-distance prayer without a clue of what was going on in the spiritual underworld. The Spirit energized her undaunted commitment to the welfare of others and the battle was won."
God rewards persistence in the cause of Christ.
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