What to Do When You're the Only Person Praying for Your Family

One afternoon, a teenage boy named Hudson Taylor

was bored and looking for something to pass the time. He

was not a believer. He wandered into his father's library and

pulled a gospel tract off the shelf. He planned to read the

interesting part and skipped the religious ending. He didn't know

his mother was on her knees. She was away from home that week,

staying with friends in another town. After lunch, a strong

sense came over her that she needed to pray for her right

then. She shut herself in an upstairs room and started asking

God to save him, and she didn't stop. She stayed there hour

after hour until something in her settled and she felt sure

that God had heard. Back home, Hudson kept reading that little

tract. We'll come back to what happened in that library, but

first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm

Bart Leger. My mom is the only believer in her family. For

years, she has been the one praying for the rest of them,

praying for their salvation. And last week, something happened

she'd prayed for for a long time. Her sister, my mom's sister, is

terminally ill. In her final days, she prayed to trust Christ.

And last night, at the time of this recording, my mom's sister

passed away. She died, we believe, having come to Jesus

because one faithful woman would not stop praying for her family.

I'm telling you this with the grief that's still fresh, and

with the gratitude I can hardly put into words. Maybe you're in

that same spot. You may be the only person in your whole

extended family who prays for the rest of them. spouse who

doesn't believe. The grown kids who have walked away from the

faith they were raised in. The parents and siblings who have no

interest in God at all. And somehow, the job of bringing

that entire family before the Lord has fallen to you. Nobody

assigned it to you. You just love them, and you seem to be

the only one on your knees. And it can feel lonely. And some

days, it can feel pointless, like your prayers go up and

nothing comes back down. There's a moment in Acts that speaks

right to the lonely believer in a family. A jailer in Philippi

asked the apostle Paul how to be saved. And listen to what Paul

told him in Acts 16.31. So they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus,

and you will be saved, you and your household. You will be

saved, you and your household. Paul spoke that to one

frightened man in the middle of the night. And by the morning,

the man's whole household had believed and been baptized. One

person's faith became the doorway for an entire family.

That's a pattern you'll find all over Scripture and all through

history. God loves faith of one member of it. The one who prays.

The one who keeps believing when nobody else in the family does.

He's not put off by being outnumbered in your family tree.

Some of his best work starts with a single believer who just

won't quit. So hear this, if you're the only one praying.

Your prayers are not vanishing. You can't see what God's doing

behind the closed doors of the people you love. But He's doing

something. And He's patient with them in ways that would exhaust

you. And He's at work in rooms you'll never walk into. Hudson

Taylor sat alone in that library, sure that nobody was thinking of

his soul, while two women prayed him into the kingdom. The people

you're praying for may feel just as alone and just as surrounded

without knowing it. Keep going. You may be the only one praying,

but you're not praying alone. God is already there. That's the

twist in Hudson Taylor's story. Somewhere in that tract, Hudson

read a phrase about the finished work of Christ, and it spoke to

him. Right there, in his father's library, that afternoon,

he gave his life to God. He couldn't wait to tell his mother.

When she came home a couple of weeks later, he met her at the

door with his news, ready to surprise her. But she wasn't

surprised. She told him she already knew. She had been

rejoicing for two weeks. Ever since the afternoon, she shut

herself in a room miles away and prayed until she was sure. And

there was more. His sister, without saying a word to him,

had been praying for his salvation every day for the past

month. Hudson had felt completely alone in that library,

but he wasn't. The whole time, two women who loved him had been

holding him before God, and God was already at work. He wasn't

alone. Hudson felt completely by himself, and he was completely

surrounded. That's the encouragement for you today. You

feel alone in your praying, and heaven is fuller of your

requests than you know. The family member you're aching over

is not beyond God's reach, and your prayers aren't wasted.

Every one of them is doing something you may not be able to

see yet. Here's today's challenge. If you're the only

person praying for your family, don't stop. Today, name them out

loud to God, one by one. Maybe it's the spouse or the child,

whoever's far from him. Ask him to draw them and convict them of

their need for salvation. Then leave the timing with him, and

trust that he's working while you wait.

Father, some of us are the only ones in our families living to

the rest of them to you. It can get lonely, and it can feel like

nothing's happening. Thank you for the promise that you save

households through the faith of one, that you are working in the

people we love even now. Give us the endurance to keep praying

and not give up. If you need prayer today, I'd love to hear

from you. You can leave me a voicemail at

dailydevotionsforbusylives.com slash voicemail. I listen to

every single one, and it would be an honor to bring your name

before the Lord. Thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions

for Busy Lives. Remember, God has a pattern of reaching a

whole family through the faith of one person. So if you're the

only one praying, keep going, because your prayers are not

disappearing, and God is already at work. Come back next time for

more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.

Until then, God bless, and have a great day.