GOD STILL LIVES TODAY

“Donnie, I need you to pray for me to be able to forgive the people we have loved and served. It’s hard for me to forgive them for how they treated your grandfather.” But Don MacLafferty was just a little boy when Grandma Mac had asked him to pray for her. She was a real ball of fire, a woman of God who had strengthened his faith in Jesus in such powerful ways.

“I took her hands in my little hands,” Don remembers, “and I cried out to God, ‘Jesus, would you please help my grandma forgive the people who have hurt her and grandpa so very much? In Jesus’ name, amen.’”

Time passed, and the next time his grandma talked with Don, she told him: “’You know what? God heard your prayers, and He’s helped me to forgive all the people that hurt your grandpa. I’m at peace now, and my heart is happy again.’”

Sadly, several months later, Grandma Mac had a near-fatal accident. While visiting some of her relatives on the west coast, they all hopped into a car, and the relative who was driving decided to race across the tracks before an oncoming train. “I can beat that train.” He declared. “I’m going to race it and get over the train tracks before it comes around the corner.”

Don’s grandma pleaded, “Please don’t! Let’s just wait and let the train go by. This is foolishness.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” her relative responded arrogantly, then stepped on the gas, driving in between the railroad safety arms that were already blocking the tracks from the road. However, right when they got on top of the train tracks, the car engine stalled. The two relatives that she was riding with quickly got their seat belts off, opened the car doors, and escaped. But Don’s little grandma was still in the process of getting her seat belt off when the train, which was trying to slow down, slammed into the car.

“While my grandmother miraculously lived through the train accident,” Don explains, “her legs were terribly broken, and that accident changed the rest of her life. The next time I saw her, she hobbled up to meet me. ‘Donnie,’ she pleaded, ‘I need you to pray with me again. I’m having a hard time forgiving my relative. I asked him not to do it, and he did it anyway. Now I live in pain. Will you pray that I will give my bitterness to God, and that I will have freedom and be able to forgive?’”

Once again, Don took her hands in his and cried out to God as only a little boy can do. Time brings healing if we’re willing, and God did heal her heart towards that relative, and she was able to forgive and to keep on going.

But her greatest test of forgiveness was still to come.

If you are facing heart-wrenching hardships, we invite you to listen prayerfully to Don MacLafferty’s personal faith-building adventures that may open the eyes of your heart to see how God still lives…even when you wonder.

To hear Don’s captivating stories and receive a free copy of his latest book: God Still Lives… Even When You Wonder, simply watch It Is Written Canada this month on CTV or the dozens of networks where It Is Written Canada is aired across Canada and around the world. Or go to iiw.ca or It Is Written Canada’s YouTube videos and click on the programs entitled: “God Still Lives Today and “Impossible Heart Surgery.”

– Mike Lemon