The Eric Metaxas Show - Anne Graham Lotz

Episode Date: October 7, 2020

In this uplifting interview with a daughter of Billy Graham, Anne Graham Lotz shares her beautiful series of personal prayers from her new book, "The Light of His Presence: Prayers to Draw You Near to the Heart of God."

Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times. This is your final warning. Now here's your host, Mr. Thrill Ride himself, Eric Mataxis. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Yes, yes, I am Eric Mataxis. And this is the show.

And the beauty of this show is I get to talk to extraordinary people all around the country, actually all around the world. In this case, I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could talk to the daughter of Billy Graham? I just like her. I consider her a friend. She is in love with Jesus. It's obvious from what she writes and says, I like to talk to those kind of people. Of course, she was not available. And then I said to my people, listen, you get this done or heads will roll. And voila, they got it done. And we have her as my guest. Anne Graham Lotz. Welcome to the program. Eric, I'm so glad I feel honored to be on your program. And actually, when I'm on your program, my credibility goes up. I hear from people and they just can't believe that you would have me on your program. So thank you.

Wow. I'd like to know why these people would say that. They're very confused. Don't tell them I said that. Because it is always honor. Well, that means so much. I'm embarrassed. Listen, I'll blush later.

I don't want to blush on camera. But you, I love. to talk to you about your books because most of your books are about the spiritual life. And the new book that you have out right now is about prayer. I have it in front of me here. It's the light of his presence, prayers to draw you near to the heart of God. And why do you write this book? You know, it's so interesting because I've struggled with prayer, Eric. And not, you know, daily prayer where you pray all during the day, but set aside time to pray. And I've struggled with consistency, just making time every day to do that. I've struggled with concentration. It seems as soon as I

bow my head in prayer, I'm thinking about what I'm going to wear tomorrow or the groceries I need to get or, you know, phone calls I need to make. And then I've struggled with just keeping my focus and and then with content. What do I say? And so as a result, I was asking the Lord to help me because he, you know, He commands us to pray, he wants us to pray, I want to pray. And so he brought to my mind, at least I believe it was the Spirit of God, just bringing to my mind that if I write down my prayers, then that will help me with concentration and it helps me with content. It's interesting that COVID has helped me with consistency because I've been home. I'm not packing. I'm not traveling.

And so I've been more consistent than I've ever been. But I've written down prayers for years, Eric. So if this book was not written just recently, there are a few prayers that are more recent than others, but this is a collection of my personal prayers. And it's a little bit like undressing in public because these are very personal. And they're prayers that, you know, I feel like God put on my heart to pray. And then I've wondered if I put them out there if they might help somebody else overcome their own struggle in prayer. It's like David, who wrote the Psalms or Daniel, who one of my favorite prayers in Daniel, or our Lord's Prayer in John 17 or Paul's prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3.

You know, we use other people's prayers sometimes to launch us into our own prayers. So not that my prayers are on that level, but I pray that God would use this little volume to help other people have words for their prayers and then launch them into their own prayers. Well, this brings up the big issue. Whenever you're around, you know, evangelicals, serious born-again believers, there are some people, and, you know, they have a point. But they think, wait a minute, writing down prayers, that's not going to be extemporaneous. I'm supposed to just talk to God.

And people who just read prayers, that's wrote, that's religious. That's what people in other denominations might do. But I want my prayers to be fresh. And I think that, you know, there's always truth in everything. But I think, and this is why I'm so glad you wrote the book, I think evangelicals have missed out because when you have a prayer written down, you just reference the Psalms. We don't say, well, I'm not going to pray that. It was written down by a person. We say, oh, no, no, it's in the scripture. But it was written by a person named David inspired by the Holy Spirit. You're a person

inspired by the Holy Spirit. I'm a person who can be inspired by the Holy Spirit. And so if a prayer is a genuine prayer, it's a God prayer. It's a Holy Spirit breath prayer. And I just want to know, did you struggle with that idea of a prayer that somebody might say, well, that's wrote. That's it's not fresh. I don't want to read a prayer. No, I didn't even cross my mind, Eric, actually, because these are my prayers. This is God knows, you know, that this is me talking to God and then I write it down to help me with that concentration, that content. But I do want to say that this volume is not intended to be a substitute for a person's

own prayers. So you can pray these prayers if you choose. But all through the volume, they're blank pages. And the idea is that the prayers that I've written might help launch you in your own prayers. And every prayer that I've written is wrapped in scripture. So I'm praying God's word back to God. And you can do that. The person who reads the book can do that. They're in their devotions and God seems to give them a promise or a verse or instruction. Then they just wrap their prayer around it. And they can have a journal or they can journal it in the book on the blank pages. But I know that prayers of other people can help me with my own prayers. So I don't use them. exclusively as my own prayers, but to go deep.

And for prayers to be rich, sometimes we need help. And I know I have. So I'm just offering this as something that might help somebody else. Well, it's funny. I was just thinking of when the disciples said to Jesus, how do we pray? And he said he gave them the Lord's prayer, our Father who art in heaven. And some people think that means, oh, okay. So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to wake up and I'm going to go, Our Father who art in heaven, how it will be the name the kingdom, Amen, done. I prayed. And what you're saying is, of course, no, it's a template and that we enter into that, but then we can make it come alive. But there's nothing wrong with having a template. There's nothing wrong with having a psalm or a prayer that someone has written down. Some people do it with the book of common prayer. But it's just, it's wonderful that you've done this. And because a lot of people trust you theoretically. And I, and I And I think that that is important. In other words, I think that we want to know that what we're praying is biblical. And, you know, that's one of the reasons I want to talk to you about this on the program is because you take that super seriously. How did your family life growing up? I mean, all of us, you know, who love your father, can't imagine what it would be like to grow up in a family like that.

What was that like in terms of, you know, learning about prayer? How about he prayed the way your mother prayed and that sort of thing? You know, thank you for asking that question because they didn't sit down and teach me to pray. They showed me. And it was their example that impacted me. And my mother taught me this more than my father. My father was gone, as you know, about 60% of my growing up years. And certainly I heard my daddy pray and I loved to hear my daddy pray.

But my mother, my bedroom in the house in which I was raised was right directly over her bedroom. So my windows opened up onto the outside above the windows in her bedroom. And when I went to bed at night, I saw the lights on and reflected the trees, I would slip down to her room to just talk to her before bedtime. I would find my mother on her knees. And I didn't need to say because she wasn't going to be interrupted. She would be there for a long time. And then I'd slip back up into my room the next morning.

I'd wake up. I'd see the lights reflected on the trees. I'd slip down there before getting ready for school, and I would find her at her desk with her. She had 14 different translations of the Bible spread out on her big flat top desk, and she would be reading her Bible. And she taught me by her example, I never saw my mother lose her temper. Now, can you believe that? And that's the truth. And she raised Franklin, you know, who was just a mess.

But I never heard her yell. And I knew that the strength that she had to be a single parent pretty much came from her time. spent on her knees and in God's word. And I wanted that for myself. Also, my grandfather, her father was a medical missionary to China. He was a surgeon and was there for 25 years. That's where my mother was born and raised. And then after 25 years, he came back when the Japanese took over. He brought his family back to America where he finished his medical practice in North Carolina. But I would go and stay with my grandparents. They were right across the street from us when I was little. And I would go down early in the morning. My granddad was,

on his knees at 4 o'clock every morning, he had a prayer list that was typed pages long, and he prayed. And you could see the impact in his life. He was a Christian statesman. He was my father's closest counselor. He was a fabulous man of integrity and grace. And I can't imagine. Forgive me for cutting you off because when we come back, I want to dive into that.

But folks, I'm talking to Anne Graham Lotz. Don't go away. Hey there, folks. Welcome back to The Air from Texas Show. I'm talking to Ann Graham Lotz, a new book out on prayer. It's called The Light of His Presence, Prayers to Draw You Near to the Heart of God. And I was just talking to you about your family, and you were telling us this beautiful story about your mother's father. They'd been missionaries in China, came back when the Japanese got in there and talk about what you were just saying before the break about his prayers.

Well, my grandparents lived right across the street from where we lived when I was young. I think we moved away from there, maybe when I was eight, and we moved up on a mountain about a mile from them. But when I was little, I was right across the street. So every time I got sick, because mother had others to raise,

then she would put me in my night down, give me a pillow, and I would walk across the creek and cross the driveway and go to stay with my grandparents. So my grandparents really helped to raise me. My grandmother is the one that taught me to sew. She taught me to read. but my grandfather was a man of grace and power and a very intelligent medical surgeon.

The last year of his life, he was a moderator of what was in the Southern Presbyterian Church. He took care of my grandmother. She was crippled towards the end of her life, and he was the one that waited on her. But in the morning, when I would spend the night with them, get up early in the morning, four o'clock in the morning, I would find my grandfather on his knees in front of his rocking chair with a typed prayer list that was pages long. After he died, Eric, the prayer list we went over. And he had on his prayer list some of my high school friends that he was praying for.

And so he was an amazing man. And that prayer, you know, there's a blessing, Eric, that goes from generation to generation. And I believe, like King David said, you know, my lines have fallen in pleasant places. I have a goodly heritage. And part of that heritage is to come from a family. that knows the Lord, that loves the Lord, that serves the Lord, obeys the Lord, but also knows how to talk to the Lord in prayer and hear his voice through the scripture. And I get excited thinking that if you didn't come from a family like that,

you can start that in your life. You can be that for your kids and your grandkids. What an amazing, amazing thing. You know, when you're talking about your mother and your grandfather, your father, I mean, to most of us, they just sound like giants of the faith that we can't even compare ourselves to them. I think like getting up at 4 a.m., you know, that's not going to happen here. And yet, obviously, because I have written about Heroes of the Faith, we know that it's not meant to make us feel, I can't do that. It's meant to make us feel I can do that. What a beautiful

thing to think about that, and we're all going to do it differently. You know, we're not all going to type up long lists of prayers, but those things can help us think about how we might do it. And and also for you to share about your own struggles about praying. I have to say I struggle terribly. I mean, if I have other people, I pray with my wife, Suzanne, there's an anointing that comes. When I'm by myself, I struggle to be regular to do that kind of thing. And so how do you, you know, COVID has helped me as well during this kind of weird season

to be more regular in Bible reading. And how do you go about it at this point? In other words, do you have a routine or do you do it differently every day? No, I have a routine. And although in the summertime when it's warm, I have my set-aside time with the Lord outside. And I love to sit outside and spend time with him. Now that the weather's gotten cooler early in the morning, you know, it's not comfortable to do that. So I'm inside by my fireplace.

And I always, Eric, begin my prayer time with God's word. So I think I shared with you a daily, what is called a daily light. It's just scripture, morning and evening. And I always begin my prayer time reading the daily light and just asking God to speak to me through it. Is there a verse? Is there a phrase? Is there something that would get my attention? And then I talk back to him about it because, Eric, this is important.

Prayer is not just getting answers. The purpose of prayer is not just to give God your shopping list. The purpose of prayer really is to dwell in his presence and dwell there in such a way that God then confides in you. And so do you remember in Genesis 6 when Noah was walking with God? And it was while he was walking with God that God confided in Noah, he was going to destroy the world. And then Noah knew to build an ark. And in Genesis 18, God confided in Abraham that he was going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. And then Abraham prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah.

So to spend time with God and spend time in his word, let him speak to me, then he can put on my heart the burden that's on his heart. And then I pray in accordance with his will and pray about the things that he brings to my attention. And right now I can tell you, Eric, with certainty that God is calling his people to prayer. It's interesting you say that because I do think that a lot of people have been saying that. We can feel that, that the Holy Spirit is speaking this to his people. When you speak about, you know, hearing from God, it's so different for so many different people. And I think a lot of people get frustrated because they say, well, I, you know, I listen.

I hear nothing. Well, how do they, how do people do that? And I think it varies with how people hear from God. And so how has that been during your life when you say you hear from God? In what, in what way does he speak to you? Let me ask that. Right. He doesn't speak to me in an audible voice. So he speaks to me through his word. And so when I'm reading my Bible or reading that daily light that is all scripture, it's like a verse or a phrase just pops up off the page and what the old-timey people call it illuminated. I just feel like it quickens and it's alive. But let me give you an example. I know that you know I've had cancer and surgery and follow up chemo and radiation. And when I was going through chemotherapy, after my by fifth chemo infusion, I blistered and burned.

I just, it was awful. And I didn't want to go through anymore. So I asked the Lord, I said, please, I was praying and asking the Lord, please, I can't do this anymore. And I feel like he told me in prayer, he impressed on my heart that he had healed me. So the next morning, when I got up for my prayer, that was at night. The next morning I got up for prayer. And so I was asking the Lord, you know, if you've healed me, then do I have to go through the rest of this chemo?

Can I just quit? But I told him, I said, I don't want to go on an impression and prayer. I want you to speak to me through your word. So about two hours later, my youngest daughter came by the house, and she was telling me what she was going to be teaching her Bible study. And it was Second Kings chapter 5 when the Syrian general, Naaman, went to Elisha and wanted to be healed of his leprosy. And so Elisha told him to go dip in the Jordan River seven times.

and Naman didn't want to do it because he said the Jordan River was dirty. He had better rivers back in Syria, but he did. And when he dipped down the Bible, clearly says when he dipped down seven times he was healed. And when I looked it up after my daughter shared that, I looked it up in the scripture. And that just popped up off the page. And I knew God was saying, Ann, I'll heal you, but you have to go through seven rounds of chemo. And I had two more to go. So on top of the five, then that would mean I had to finish my chemotherapy.

and I believe God has healed me. I went through the radiation because the doctor, you know, I do what the doctor says. But that's an example of what I'm asking God specifically, speak to me, give me direction, give me wisdom, give me counsel. He can speak to me through his word, but I have to cultivate ears to listen. So I'll read his word, not just for facts and information, but I read his word listening for his voice to speak to me. Well, it's so important as you speak on this right now, it reminds me that it's important for us, or it's helpful for us, to surround ourselves by people who live a life of prayer, who live in the word, because God uses them to encourage us. And just when you shared about your daughter saying that to you, you know, if you don't, if you're not hanging out with people who are doing things like being parts of teaching Bible studies and things like that, it makes it harder. It feels weirder to do this. You feel like you're all alone.

And I think that's really important for us, not necessarily to be part of a church, but to be part of any Christian community, which is the church, friends, to have groups of friends that can encourage us. Just like when you, you know, you say, I want to start an exercise program. If you do it with a friend or friends, it becomes much easier. And I just want to say that. There's nothing about prayer in the spiritual life that's not practical. It's just as practical as anything else.

Paul talks about running a race. And I know in your life you've got lots of those folks. You know, and God has blessed me that way. And in COVID, of course, we're cut off somewhat. But my family lives nearby. And so because we're all sort of sheltered down, we've had wonderful family times. And I want to go back to my grandfather because I don't want to make it sound as though

he was so super spiritual. What he taught me by his example, Eric, was to take prayer seriously. And he took his relationship with God seriously, although he was great fun. He was a jokester. He loved puns. He was, you know, very fun. And my grandmother was also, and, I mean, my grandfather used to ride a Harley Davidson in China,

you know, put my grandmother in the sidecar, and she had a little squeeze bottle of ammonia to squirt the dogs that came up to attack. And, I mean, they were, you know, he was an amazing man. And my mother, you know, was, you know, was full. full of fire and zest and wit. She was almost at a wicked sense of humor. So, so they're not pious, super spiritual people that would sort of intimidate. They're normal, everything people, but they had a genuine, authentic, serious relationship with Jesus that came first. And they gave evidence that through the priority, they gave the Bible reading and to prayer. That's a great,

important point to make. Very important. We're going to be back. Folks, I don't know about you, but I plan to continue talking to Anne Graham Lotz. Stick around. Hey there, folks. This is the Eric Metaxa show? Yes, I'm Eric. And I'm talking to Anne Graham Lotz about her new book, The Light of His Presence, Prayers to Draw You Near to the Heart of God. I guess I should ask you, Anne, what do you see as the role of prayer, the role of confession in prayer, the different elements to prayer. I mean, because a lot of times people think prayer is just, I ask God for this and this and this and this.

Clearly, there's more to it. Yes, you know, I know a lot of people. And prayer, we can go to God and ask him anything. So I don't want to put that down at all. But if that's the sum total of your prayer life where you're just always presenting to God your shopping list, then you're missing out on what I think prayer is all about. Prayer is dwelling in God's presence.

Moses and Exodus. met God in the ten of meeting. Do you remember? And that's where he would go and when it came out, his face shone, and then Joshua stayed in the tenor of meeting. It was just dwelling in the presence of God. And so there are four elements that I try to include in my prayers and not every prayer. And I'm talking now, Eric, about set aside time in prayer. Not the kind of prayers we pray all day long, little error prayers. You know, help me Jesus or, you know, what should I do? There are all sorts of prayers we pray during the day. But once a day, I want to have a set-aside time with God. And so in that set-aside time, I want to begin my prayer with worship, because as I focus

in on who God is, it puts everything in my life in perspective. He is great. He is good. He is kind. He is loving. He is righteous. He is just. You know, I just begin my prayer with worship. And then from there, I move into confession. And in light of who he is, is there something in my life that I need to confess? And when I was a little girl, I'd watch the picture about Jesus on television in response, I believed he died for my sin. So I told him I was sorry. I asked him to forgive me. I claimed Jesus as my Savior.

I invited him into my heart. I surrendered to him as my Lord. And I believe at that moment, I was born again into God's family. And I was forgiven of all my sin because Jesus died 2,000 years ago. So all of my sin was, you know, past, present, future was under the blood of Jesus. So I don't go back to confess for forgiveness because I've been forgiven. But I go back every day to confess. confess sin that I might be cleansed, that there would be no hindrance in my relationship between

myself and the Lord, that I would be filled with His Spirit. And then after confession, I move into Thanksgiving and just the relief, thank you, Lord, that when I confess my sin, your faithful, and just a forgiveness, cleanse me of all my sin. And then I thank him for the blessings. And I can tell you, going through the cancer journey, you know, there's a tendency you can focus in on the pain and the discomfort and the dread and the fear, or you could ask God to give you eyes to see the blessings. And I asked him to show me the blessings. And some of those hard things were blessings in disguise. I can look back now and see how he used even the hardest days to bless me. And blessing after blessing. And so I just want to cultivate that attitude in prayer that I thank God

for his blessings, and I named them before him. And then in the end, after I've worshipped and I've confessed and I thanked them, then I'm ready to intercede. And so, you know, intercession as God brings names and things to my mind, I always pray, of course, my family and my children, my grandchildren. But then I also have a bullet list of people who lost their spouses about the time that my husband went to heaven. And since then, so the last five years, and it's quite a list. And people who've also been diagnosed with cancer since I was diagnosed, and that's quite a list. And so I want to pray for people like that, as well as continually praying for the peace of Jerusalem, praying for the persecuted church, the Christians and the gulags of North Korea that just my heart continues

to grieve for them. I don't know why God has burdened me so for them. And also the ones in Evan Prison and Tehran. You know, the believers, they're incarcerated all over the world in dark, dark places. And so those are some of the burdens on my heart that I believe God has given me from his heart. But prayer is, it's a wonderful conversation with God, just spending time with him and in worship and confession and Thanksgiving and then intercession and reading his word actually before and after prayer that I might hear from him. Beautiful. This is beautiful. And I know most of this is in the book itself. You talk about, I mean, there's so many different prayers. Are there any that you can mention, we just got a couple of minutes left in this segment, but that stand out to you so people understand what's in the book?

Well, the prayers, they're just, it's not really teaching about prayer. They are prayers. So they're just 40 written prayers that were my personal prayers. And they've been collected over the years. The newest ones in there was a prayer for the persecuted church that God just put on my heart. and I, you know, Eric, I know you understand when you have a burden and you have to release it. You know, I do that in a message when I speak and God will put a message on my heart and then I just have to release it as I speak. Same thing in prayer where God would put a burden on my heart.

And I wrote that prayer for the persecuted church. There's also one in there for future generations. And I wrote it for my children and grandchildren, the editor, when I submitted it, she said, well, you know, it's too long. And I said, what am I going to cut out? You know, this is my prayer for my children and grandchildren, and it's all scripture, you know, just praying the scripture over my children and grandchildren. So those are two of the newest ones. I think the last one in the volume is about holiness, because in this nation or in the world, we have lost our vision of the holiness of God. And there's no fear of God.

And his standards haven't changed, Derek. So he says we're to be holy as he is holy. And we compare ourselves with each other, and we're just in a mess. and that's within the church. You know, so the last one is on hold. There's also one that's on my personal relationship with the Lord, my love relationship. And actually,

I sort of tracked through the song of Solomon to be able to express myself. And I do that in scripture. You know, I take a portion of scripture, and then I just sort of pray it through. And I said there's one on a love relationship with the Lord's tender. We're going to go to another break.

We'll be back. Final segment with Anne Graham Lott. You're not going to any place. I already need. that. Friends, I'm talking to Anne Graham lots, and Anne, I have yet to comment on the glorious color of your sweater. It's such a happy color. It just makes me happy. The color itself, orange, one of my favorite colors, a particular shade of orange. Let me ask you, you know, we're living through one of the most bizarre years of any of our lives. You have to be real old

to remember, you know, living through World War II or whatever it is. This is a bizarre time for most of us. What are you praying about right now during this season? We've got an election coming up. We've got this bizarre pandemic. We've got violence in our streets. What are you praying about? Yes. My prayer constantly is even so come, Lord Jesus, because I believe right now our world isn't a setup, and God is setting us up for the return of Jesus Christ. I believe we're living at the end of all things. And Jesus promises that I'll be with you to the end of the age. So he's saying there will be an end.

And I believe we're coming up on it. So the world is just in the craziness that is the setup for these last, but I'm praying, you know, my biggest burden, perhaps, Eric, is for the church. And I'm talking about those who call themselves by God's name. So like you made a distinction before, you know, not necessarily the organized church. that's in the building on the corner of the block, but people like you and me who call ourselves by God's name. And God said in Second Chronicle 713 that when I send a pestilence in the land,

if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from our sin, turn away from the wrong things we've been doing. Then he says he'll hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land. So really, Eric, the implication is that the healer, that we desperately need in America rests on God's people getting right with God. And I look across, you know, the Christian spectrum. And I participated in Jonathan Combs, the return on the Washington Mall. And then I marched with my brother's son on the Mall and prayed.

And there were almost half, excuse me, almost half a million people on the National Mall on October, excuse me, September 26. and they were all there for the purpose of seeking God. And so I'm just believing that God is calling us to pray that heaven is going to be moved. And I don't know how heaven is going to move because I'm going to be honest. I was reading in Daniel 12 this morning, that's where I was in devotions. And when God moves, sometimes it's not pleasant. And so we may be going through a time of enormous difficulty and we may have persecution. I pray not.

But I think hard times are coming. And this is a time for God's people to keep their focus on him, our relationship with him, to share the gospel, that we have hope in Jesus Christ. We know where we've come from. We know who we are. We know where we're going. And we have peace in our hearts and joy that doesn't depend on our circumstances. And so this is a time to share what Jesus means to us. And there are people all around us.

They're going to know, no, you know this. They're terrified. They put their masks on. They duck their heads. They hide. They've become hostile. They don't want to talk to people. It's bizarre.

But I know that they're frightened under there. And Jesus, and I'm not scared at all. If I die, I go to be with Jesus. If I live, I'm going to be here to serve him. So, you know, I'm in a win-win situation. It's funny if you say that. Yeah. I was going to say it's funny if you say that.

Yeah. I feel the same way. I think I've become bolder in my faith because I think, hey, hey, I have the answer. Like there is no need to fear and there's no need to fear death. People are walking around fearing death. And I think to myself, if you really know the truth, you will not fear death. What an amazing thing. Most people can't even imagine that.

And I think, well, I know that. And we as believers, first of all, we need to. get straight in our own lives. Do I fear death? Do I really believe what the scripture says? Do I believe what Jesus says? And if you do, you think, well, that's that. I can walk through life with a joy and a peace. And I'm certainly not going to get it right all the time. But it does seem that this time in our nation's history, I think, wow, it would be really tough to be dealing with all this if I didn't have the faith I have. And so you are right. There are plenty of people who I would say are right. They're hungry to hear what we almost take for granted because we know it's true.

You know, and Eric, and for people who are listening or watching, you know, the Bible says that a believer does not see death. So for an unbeliever to die, it must be a horrific experience, but for a believer, we just close our eyes to this life and we open them to the face of Jesus. We pass from death into life. It's just when our faith becomes sight. And not only that, but we enter into a heavenly home that's been. prepared for us, that Jesus has personally prepared for us so we can look forward to going home.

And in heaven, I have my loved ones. My husband is there. My mother and father are there. My grandparents, my in-laws and people that have gone before me. And maybe you don't have a heritage like that, but you can start a heritage like that. And I just heard Nikki Cruz speaking at the return, and his father was a voodoo priest. His mother was into dark magic. They cursed him and said he was a son of Satan. But when God changed his life, God used him and brought his parents to Christ. He had 17 siblings, brought 13 of his siblings to Christ. Three of them are ministers of the gospel.

So God can change anybody's heart. You just have to surrender to him. Just open up your heart to Jesus, ask him to come in, forgive you of your sin, surrender your life to him. He can give you that peace and that joy and that hope for the future. I tell you, it's so wonderful to hear. you say that because it's true. And secondly, you know, I was, I was in Greece, so I wasn't able to be part of the stuff on the mall or Franklin had invited me. And it killed me. But then I thought, you know what, the difference between walking with Jesus, which I say, this is for everyone.

It's not just for me or for everyone on this planet. When you walk with Jesus, you can have peace, even when things don't go the way you want or this or that. You can just say, the Lord wants me to be in one place at one time. The Lord is going to walk with me through this or through that. And if I walk with him now, as you just said, I will never have to face death. He will bring me into something that is more full of life than this life. These are the shadow lands. And, you know, the idea, Anne, that both of us know that's true. And we know that God wants that for everyone. So if there's anybody walking around and fear. Just as you said, we've got to close now, but I'll just close on this, that, folks, anyone who's listening, this is for you. This is not for us. This is for you. And it's a joy

to get to talk about it in a free country where they let us talk about stuff like this. And Graham Lott's congratulations on the new book, The Light of His Presence, Prayers to Draw You Near to the Heart of God. Always a pleasure to speak with you. God bless you, my sister. Thank you, Eric. I'm always blessed to talk with you. Thank you so much. Folks, welcome back. Before we say nighty night or whatever time it is where you are, I want to remind you that if you're listening to this today, which is Wednesday, tonight, is the vice presidential debate. Kamala Harris is going to be debating vice president, Mike Pence. And I make no secret about the fact that I love Mike Pence. And I'm not particularly fond of Kamala. Harris, politically speaking. So it's going to be interesting debate tomorrow on this program. I am going to be dissecting the debate with our friend Kevin McCullough.

And if Kevin McCullough can't make it, it'll be with John Smirak. I think probably with John Smirak. But we are going to be, maybe with both of them tomorrow, actually, now that I think of it. But I think that you don't want to miss tomorrow's show. It's going to be loads of fun. Also, I should mention, if you have not yet given to the Alliance Defending Freedom, we really need your help. I won't lie to you, folks.

We need your help. The Alliance Defending Freedom is a great organization. They help people for free by defending them in courts of law with regard to religious liberty. Religious liberty is under attack in America right now. And if we don't fight in the courts with everything we have, we lose one of our fundamental liberties. This is something that's been happening for decades. It's intensified.

We need to take it seriously. If you care about America, you need to care about this. Alliance-fending freedom is at the top of my list in terms of defending this. They do it for free, which is why they need our help. So if you go to our website, I ask you please to go to our website. The Alliance Defending Freedom banner is there, and we ask you to give anybody who gives anything gets enrolled in our a grand prize drawing. If you win that, you won't know what to do with all the wonderful swag that you get.

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here he is. You will get a signed Mike Lindell, Bob will head. doll. Perhaps this is the sort of thing you want to give to that special someone to let them know that you care. Valentine's Day comes early. Nothing says, I'm thinking about you better than a Mike Lindell bobblehead doll. There's something just so, so charming about the way his head bubbles, about that mustache, the glazed eyes. There's just something that if you want to let someone know you care. And we really recommend that you give $250 to the Alliance Defending Freedom. It's all in a good cause and you'll get all this great stuff. I'm sorry we're out of time for today,

but you can go back and listen. Please follow us on our YouTube channel. Go to YouTube and subscribe to this program. We would be very grateful for that. We think some of these programs are worth watching when you can watch them. And we'll talk to you tomorrow about the debates. Very exciting. Until then.