YNKYou never know when something you say to encourage someone will bear fruit… sometimes years later. Here’s an example…

A person related to me a conversation where a friend of his confessed to being furious with God. This person admitted he never before had such a deep seeded anger because of what God did/allowed in his life. The story goes that this man’s brother had made several life significant life changes. The most important change was in relation to God. His walk with Jesus had taken leaps and bounds so that he was the godliest person this individual knew. The person envied his brother’s walk and longed to have the kind of relationship with God his brother had. Then…

His brother literally dropped dead from a heart attack ten minutes after getting off the phone with the man. When the man found out, his anger toward God raged into his life. The kind of anger he described as explosive… hot… and deep… toward God. “Of all people why would you take him?! He was doing everything right… everything I’d like to do. He was the kind of person I want to be… AND YOU KILLED HIM.” Then…

In the midst of this man’s fury toward God, he remembered something his friend told him YEARS ago. He remembered being told about God’s perfection in everything. Perfect love… anger… joy… justice… everything we feel is from God, but HE is perfect in them all! He then realized that “God took” his brother… took him home to heaven. The man realized the one thing his brother wanted more than anything was to be closer to God. The closest a person can be to God is to actually be IN God’s presence… IN HEAVEN. The man realized God had granted his brother the one thing he wanted more than anything… to be with God. THEN…

The man said immediately all his anger left him… every bit of it. He said a sense of peace and comfort came over him like he had never experienced. He realized God granted his brother his greatest desire… to be WITH God. He said deep in his soul there was a sense of peace and the presence of God. He described the event as a life “game changer” in his view of God.

MY friend was amazed how GOD used something he had said… so many years ago… to encourage and comfort a fellow believer.

You just never know. Speak God’s truth and it will NOT return void… even if it takes years or decades to happen (Isaiah 55:11).