It is a most hopeful sign that you cry out thus for your parents, for God delights to use the prayers of His children as instruments in the great work of conversion. You yearn for them to hear the voice of the living Christ, and well you should, for no heart opens save He who holds the key of David puts in His hand by the Spirit and turns the lock. Consider the case of Paul, that ravening wolf who breathed out threatenings and slaughter. Had we looked upon him, we would have said, "Here is a man as far from hope as any can be, red-handed with the blood of saints." Yet what says the Word?
He was a chosen vessel. The voice from the excellent glory called him, and the persecutor became the preacher. So, pray on. As the ransom was found in the pit for the sinner ready to perish, so a ransom is found for your parents.
It is a gift of Divine Love, not a work of man. God has commanded their deliverance, and His commandment is effectual. Every satanic plan and deed you fear is known to the Lord, and He will defeat it. Remember, deliverance from the power of darkness is as much the work of God as deliverance from its guilt.
He who has taught you the mischief of your own worldly loves will also teach you that the enemy's arrows, though they fly thick, cannot pierce the shield He holds over you. The Evil One may suggest that God will cast you off, but look that temptation in the face, it has the devil’s cloven foot stamped upon it. It is a lie forged in his own workshop. Troubles, too, do not spring from the dust; even the bitter cup is filled by the Lord’s hand.
Yet He does not fill it to destroy you, but as a Refiner sits at the furnace door, He watches that the heat is just enough. You ask for wisdom and a way of escape. This is right. He who has delivered you from the noisome pit will guide you through the maze.
He brought you forth with silver and gold of grace; there was not one feeble soul among His tribes then, and there need not be one now. The deep despondency you fear, the sense of helplessness, is the very soil in which His strength is made perfect. When you can do nothing, He does all. Therefore, declare His works.
Live, and in your living, testify that the Lord has chastened you sorely, but He has not given you over to death. And as you testify, you may be the very means, as a simple instrument, to turn your own parents from the error of their way. A letter, a word, a life lived in transparent gratitude, these the Lord can bless. The arm that split the sea is not shortened.
Go forward, then, in prayer, and expect great things.