Never stop praying for so-called hopeless cases. The example of E. Howard Cadle teaches us there are none.
Cadle grew up in the home of a Christian mother and an alcoholic father. By age twelve, he began to emulate his father, drinking and raging out of control. Soon, he succumbed to the power of sex, gambling, and the Midwest crime syndicate.
“Always remember, son,” his worried mother often said, “that at eight o’clock every night I’ll be kneeling beside your bed, asking God to protect my precious boy.” Her prayers didn’t seem to slow him down until one evening, on a rampage, he pulled a gun on a man and squeezed the trigger. The weapon never fired, and someone quickly knocked it away. Cadle noticed it was exactly eight o’clock.
Later, in broken health, he was told by a doctor that he had only six months to live. Dragging himself home, penniless and pitiful, he collapsed in his mother’s arms, saying, “Mother, I’ve broken your heart. I’d like to be saved, but I’ve sinned too much.”
The old woman opened her Bible and read Isaiah 1:18: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” That windswept morning, March 14, 1914, Cadle started life anew. With Christ now in his heart, he turned his con skills into honest pursuits and started making money hand over fist, giving 75 percent of it to the Lord’s work. He helped finance Rodney “Gipsy” Smith’s crusades, in which thousands came to faith in Christ. Then, he began preaching on Cincinnati’s powerful WLW, becoming one of America’s most popular radio evangelists. “Until He calls me,” Cadle used to say, “I shall preach the same gospel that caused my sainted mother to pray for me. And when I have gone to the last city and preached my last sermon, I want to sit at His feet and say, ‘Thank You, Jesus, for saving me that dark and stormy day from a drunkard’s and a gambler’s Hell.’ ”3.
While we’re to pray without ceasing—and many of us find ourselves praying day and night for our children—it does help to have specific, disciplined habits of prayer on behalf of a wayward child. You might find a prayer partner who will covenant to pray with you at the same time each week. Prayer will win the victory, and the faithful prayers of a parent or grandparent are among the most potent forces in the universe.