Patricia

My prayer request is sort of for me and my boyfriend.

We have been dating for about 3 years now. He is not a believer, and I am. This never bothered me too much because we had discussed it and made decisions concerning our future together based on this premise. However, after one of my friends got married, somebody mentioned to me that maybe I shouldn't be with my boyfriend, since he doesn't believe. As I love my boyfriend very, very much, this was not what I wanted to hear. Also, I suffer from GAD, so I was sent into a panic attack lasting a little over 6 months that made me incapable of eating or picking myself up off the floor. I was not sane, to put it simply. I could not bring myself to leave this person who was otherwise so perfect for me, but I didn't want to displease God either.

Flash forward. I began a prayer regimen with my church, family, and believing friends. Through my suffering and this prayer regimen, God revealed to me that He would give me this desire of my heart if I only believed - that my boyfriend would be saved. But I still wasn't sure, so I asked him for a very specific sign - that if I was supposed to be, or at least COULD be with this guy, that He let me know by getting a hold of him and having him ask to attend church with me - even if only once. Within a week, this happened. We have also discussed in great detail my concerns and reasons for it. Since then, he has been the main drive in my life to get closer to God. He is pushing me to attend church more regularly and to read and study the Word. He has agreed to attend church with me when he can and to bring the children up under whatever religious teachings I choose because he does believe it is better to be a believer, he just isn't to that point yet. He also says that the only reason he doesn't believe is because, unlike seemingly everyone else, he has never FELT it. If he were to feel it and know it was God, he would not hesitate to turn to God. He has read the bible and gone to church and admires greatly the teachings of Jesus. And despite the irony, being with him is drawing me closer to God. However, despite the fact that I have had several signs from God now and the fact that I have my family and churches full support in the matter, I still occasionally struggle with my faith when I read about how it's a sin and I better not do it, etc etc on online forums and the likes. I am attempting to stop myself from reading such things and try to push on in faith alone, as God requested from me, but it is difficult as I've never had much faith in that past (that is how I wound up here, after all).

So I guess what I'm asking for is everyone that reads this to pray for the soul of my boyfriend - that God will get a hold of him and that he will soften his heart to heed the call. I am also asking for prayer for my own faith - that through all of this, I will find a stronger faith and be able to stand against the devil and my own mind in this situation, where part of me keeps thinking 'he'll never find God' when I should be saying 'any day now'. I ask for prayers of peace for me and salvation for him, and I thank anybody who reads this and offers up their prayers for me. Know that I am praying for you as well.