He is Not Willing that any Should Perish..

14 Mar He is Not Willing that any Should Perish..

Allow me to share this story, narrated to me by a friend a few weeks ago.

I’ll call her Dee.

In the late 80’s, my friend Dee was a young Christian, a teenager, eager to serve the Lord. At some point, Dee became aware of a certain politician, a man who hailed from somewhere in the Rift; a prominent man, revered by some but greatly reviled by many.

According to most, this man was wicked. Desperately wicked, they said.

And so being a young Christian, Dee decided to do something about it. Per her reasoning, mheshimiwa needed to come to a sudden and conclusive end, post haste. So she and a friend took the matter urgently before the Lord.

“Dear Lord, kindly promote this man to Glory. Or the opposite thereof. And could you possibly do it by next Thursday? Thank you Lord, amen.”

I imagine this is how a baby Christian might petition the Lord for the demise of a foe..

But to her surprise, the Lord firmly declined.

“He led me to the verse that says that He is not willing that any should perish.” she says. “Then, He instructed me to begin praying for this man.”

So she obeyed.

And to the young lady’s surprise, the more she prayed, the more her attitude towards him began to change. She says her heart became so patient towards him, that nothing he said or did could offend her. Instead, she began to have a certain understanding about this man and his life.

And after weeks of faithful prayer, the Lord one day instructed her to deliver a message to mheshimiwa himself. But being young and not personally known to him, Dee had no choice but to attempt to see him in his office. In parliament, no less.

So she prayed and asked the Lord to make a way.

And sure enough, after a surprisingly easy entry, not only did he agree to see her, but he even arranged to see her alone, away from a contingent of constituents that had come to see him that day.

Plus he recognized her name – apparently, mheshimiwa hailed from the same place as Dee’s dad, and was somehow able to make the connection between the two. So she was able to deliver the Lord’s message to him, confidentially and in person.

Dee did not share with me what the content of that message was.

But, she said, as soon as she began to speak, the man visibly began to crumble. It cut straight to his heart.

And later, as she left, mheshimiwa quietly asked if she could continue to pray for him. He never quite felt free to go to church, he explained, because of the inevitable stir his presence would cause. He was a very private man, not given to much showmanship, but was quite the legend nonetheless.

And so my friend Dee faithfully continued to bring him before the Lord, but time and circumstance eventually caused the two to lose touch. And almost thirty years later, after a long and fabled career, mheshimwa breathed his last, and was laid to rest with the attendant funfair.

Dee shares how she later heard that he had finally come to know the Lord, at some point before his death. She’s not quite sure if this is true, she says, but if it were, she would not be surprised at all.

No Brethren, it would not surprise her at all.

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The Lord is.. longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9