Day 19 - A Hopeful Heart

Jan 19

Listen To The Podcast

A Hopeful Heart - JR Gieringer

I started following Jesus before my dad did. As we reconciled our relationship over the years, it opened up the opportunity for me to share my testimony about what God was doing in my life. Although my dad had an awareness of God, he never really understood the transformative power of surrender to God and repentance until about 10 years ago. Around that time, my Dad started having some health problems: heart surgery, and cancer, and he eventually suffered a stroke due to Covid. The stroke caused temporary blindness on his left side, cancer made him very sick from the chemotherapy and radiation, and the heart surgery left him taking medication for the rest of his life to ensure that the valve they replaced would not cause a blood clot. At this point in my life, my faith in God was growing more than it ever had before, but my dad was at his lowest of lows.

As I began to intercede for my dad & disciple him, God began to work miraculously.

My dad regained his eyesight, and most of his mobility, and was cancer-free for the past 6 years. During that time of healing in his body, God began to simultaneously heal his heart. For my dad, being at his lowest of lows opened up the door for him to realize the fragility of life, and most importantly, his need for a Savior. Every time we spoke on the phone before we ended our conversation my dad would ask me to pray with him. It became my mission to remind my dad when he struggled with anxiety over what was to come, that he had a living hope in Jesus - the promise of redemption & forgiveness, access to a right relationship with God, and an eternity that was being prepared for him.

As my dad clung to that hope, everything changed- and eventually, my dad rededicated his life to Jesus.

When he was finally able to come home after recovering from his stroke, the very first thing he did was to go to his church and publicly declare his faith by getting water baptized. He recommitted his life to Christ at the age of 81, and until his final days would share with our family & his friends about the life-changing, heart-transforming power and love of Christ.

On December 12, 2022, my dad peacefully went to be with Jesus.

The night before he passed, we spoke on the phone. He told me how tired he was, and that he was ready to go home to be with his Heavenly Father. I prayed with him, told him I loved him, and encouraged him with the same hope I always did; that “He who promised is faithful”.

As hard as it is to go through the loss of a loved one, I take great comfort in knowing that my dad was transformed by Jesus, and can now spend eternity with Him.

Hebrews 10:19-25 reads, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Through recommitting his whole heart to Jesus during the final years of his life, my father went from feeling consumed by anxiety about the future and guilt from his past to be fully confident in the living hope and forgiveness of Jesus.

God worked through both my father and me over the past 31 years to strengthen each other in Christ as we held unswervingly to the hope we have in Jesus. My dad’s life has reminded me that it doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, where you’ve been, or how long you’ve been gone. It is never too late to turn the page and allow God to rewrite your story. That truth revives my hope today. May it revive yours too.