Matthew's story
Very occasionally in life someone asks you to pray for something and God takes hold of you and gives you something special in prayer. I think people with the gift of intercession get this quite often, but for me, who doesn't have that gift, its a rare but notable occurrence.
Several years ago one of my very best friends in the whole world started to tell me about the difficulties his teenage son was having at school and with life in general. This is a family of well educated professional parents who have a churchgoing background and live a very normal middle class life in the leafy suburbs. Their son, Matthew, found school quite a tricky place to fit in and his parents were a bit concerned that he wasnt happy and didnt seem to have much direction or passion in his life. We aren't in touch all the time, but over the following year or so the news started to get more concerning. Behaviour was getting a bit difficult ( but hey, he was a teenage lad ) the lack of purpose and interest in school was starting to become a worry. But then Matt discovered boxing and things started to look up. He was really good at boxing and it gave him a focus and a purpose. His parents were delighted that he had found something to be passionate about and they took him to lots of training and competitions and everything looked like it was back on track.
No news was good news for a while. But then the emails from my friends started coming thick and fast. By this time Matt was probably about 17. For some reason I cant quite remember he had had to give up boxing. He was drifting aimlessly from work placement to work placement showing no interest and less commitment. And then the drug taking started. Stevie, Matts dad, was super worried about the path his son was on and I said Id pray. I took Matt to my prayer triplet and the three of us got hold of him and prayed regularly. The news got worse. Matts drug taking began to spiral out of control, his family relationships became strained to the point of breakdown. Stevie and his wife were at the end of themselves. My prayer triplet prayed often and hard - as did Matthews grandmother who had been faithfully praying for him for years. Matt needed a miracle. And he needed one now.
I love my friends and , as a mother of teenage boys I know that if I were in that situation ( there but for the grace of God) Id want anyone and everyone to be praying for me : but the determination to pray for Matt went further and deeper than just the ' usual'. I had absolute faith that I could and would keep praying. You have to understand that I am really not a ' prayer warrior'. I am pretty woeful at praying ( and no, Im not just saying that out of some sense of false modesty) but God got hold of me for Matt. I kept on knocking, seeking and asking, and so did my lovely faithful prayer triplet and Keith and the boys prayed for him regularly too.
Things continued to get worse. ( notice a pattern here?😁) Matt suffered a complete breakdown and ended up in hospital and then ( miraculously) in rehab. Christian rehab. Which in itself was a massive huge answer to prayer. Because in rehab he was introduced to Jesus and he was loved, nurtured, disciplined and helped back into his right mind. Slowly but surely Jesus wooed him. It wasn't a smooth journey by any stretch of the imagination and there were times when Matt took steps backwards and so very nearly jacked it all in and went back to his old life. But with the loving support of his parents and the people at Yeldall Manor, and with some frantic praying in the background from those who knew when he was having a crisis, he got a grip and started to dig deep into God's word and God's love.
This is Matt a few weeks ago, just before his baptism 😁 7minutes which will encourage you
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