God Answers Prayer

God sometimes answers prayers in mysterious ways. He answered my prayer through my angry mother.

I was raised in a Methodist family but rarely attended church. When the rest of my family went to church, I would stay home and read. I was an avid reader and devoured everything readable, except religious material.

My older brother, Romeo, had joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and he had many religious books—but I had no interest in reading them. I thought Christian books were boring. Later, when my brother got married and left home, he took all his books with him except for one—The Great Controversy.

Things became a bit financially tight for our family, and no extra pocket money was available. That meant I couldn’t buy books. I became desperate for something to read. So one day I picked up The Great Controversy and flipped through its pages. I noticed the phrase “investigative judgment.” I didn’t know what that meant, but it intrigued me because it sounded like a detective story.

Christian books might not be so boring after all, I thought, and sat down to read it.

A LIFE-CHANGING BOOK

I was impressed with the book. It wasn’t what I’d expected, but I wasn’t disappointed. I wanted to read more by the same author.

“Have you more books by Ellen White?” I asked my brother.

He looked at me with puzzlement. Then he gave me Patriarchs and Prophets, Prophets and Kings, The Desire of Ages, Steps to Christ, and others.

I read them all, and they changed my life. I now felt a need to accept Jesus into my life, and I wanted to go to church. But I wasn’t sure which church to go to—the Methodist church of my family, or the Adventist church. I prayed to God for guidance.

AN ANGRY MOTHER

One day my mother became very angry at something I’d done. She shouted, “You’re so unruly because you don’t go to church! This Saturday you must start going to the Adventist church that your brother goes to. He was once just as unruly as you are. But after he became an Adventist, he became a good man and married a good Adventist woman. I want you to go to that church!”

She stormed out as I sat in silence. I then realized that God had used my angry mother to answer my prayer.

FOLLOWING GOD’S LEADING

The following Sabbath I went to the Dangamvura Central Adventist Church in Mutare, where I lived. Mutare is the fourth-largest city in Zimbabwe, situated on the eastern border with Mozambique. It was the same church my brother Romeo attended, and he gasped when he saw me walk in.

“You mean those books achieved what I failed to do for so long?” he asked.

I joined a Bible study class, and a year later I was baptized. In time I became a deacon, later head deacon, then an elder. I also married a wonderful Adventist woman. We now have two children.

God used a book, a lack of finances, and an angry mother to lead me to Him. I’m eternally grateful.