How Anne Grew to Love God .. by herself & not because she's Billy Graham's child

Some points to reflect on...

A Wake-up Call
-- by Erin Gieschen

On September 13, 2001, Anne Graham Lotz (the offspring of famous preacher Billy Graham) was interviewed on CBS' The Early Show as a spokesperson for her father Billy Graham and as a spiritual advisor. The program's transcript found its way into the hands of a member of British Parliament—who invited her to give the main address to over 600 leaders at the National Prayer Breakfast in London.

"We are praying that God will speak to us through you," he told her. The evening before the event, Anne ripped up her prepared message, which now seemed generic and canned. She got on her knees and begged the Lord to give her His message.

In response, God sparked her passion to call His people to a revival of the heart—to see the Lord as He truly is.

In Touch spoke with Anne about the beginnings of her own personal revival.

ITM: Many people might think that because you're Billy Graham's daughter, your faith was just handed down to you. How did it become your own?

AGL: I was raised pretty much by my mother and grandparents, and I saw their authentic relationships with Christ at home. My mother didn't get on her knees to pray because she knew I was going to be watching; I would catch her in the act! I also often caught my grandfather on his knees beside the living room rocker at four in the morning. Until I was nine years old, my grandparents were in my life. After 25 years as medical missionaries, they'd come back to the States from China when the Japanese took over ... So from the beginning, I saw the people who cared about me most living out a relationship I also wanted.

.. Just being Billy Graham's daughter didn't guarantee I would be a child of God — I had to make that decision. One Good Friday when I was around eight years old, I was watching a film on TV about the life of Christ called King of Kings. As the story unfolded, I began to feel very convicted. I confessed my sins, asked Jesus to come into my heart, gave Him my life, and was "born again" into His family.

I think much of it was God's grace, revealing Himself to me when I was a little girl. I wasn't only "saved," knowing I'd go to heaven when I died. The Lord just became very real to me in an experiential way.

ITM: Even two generations of believers in a family is no guarantee the next generation will follow Jesus wholeheartedly. What do you think makes a child's faith more likely?

AGL: You can't pass down your faith to your children just because you're supposed to. It has to come from the heart. There has to be a genuine love. My grandparents and parents loved the Lord and their family. It was just contagious. I've heard it said that faith isn't so much taught as it's caught. My mother has a little quip—you can't teach your children to like spinach if every time they see you eating yours, you gag!

ITM: At what point did you experience your first spiritual "wake-up call?"

AGL: When I was 17, I was under a lot of pressure to act a certain way, dress a certain way, have certain friends, or, do certain things because I was Billy Graham's daughter... I was trying to please everybody. .. With one group, I acted a certain way; with another group, I acted another way... It was to the point that I didn't know who I was. I remember it all coming to a head as a sort of crisis. And I finally decided I would no longer live my life to please other people; I would live to please God. This was a very freeing decision—even though it took a while to work out, as I was very self-conscious. In time, God has given me enormous victory over that. But it took a while to overcome that ..

ITM: Having grown up in the church with a high-profile family in ministry, you've probably seen the downside of Christian culture. How do you keep your relationship with God fresh when others' failures or unfair expectations wear you out?

AGL: You have to make a choice. Even in my family, I've seen "the ugly side." Whether within Christian culture or at home with neighbors, we have the tendency to measure ourselves by each other—and we just get out of focus. I still have to constantly make the choice for the Lord to be more important to me than anybody else.

ITM: Any advice for "professional Christians" who have served God for years but feel they just can't muster up their faith anymore? Maybe their church is falling apart, and suddenly God doesn't seem close anymore.

AGL: It all stems from your personal relationship with Him. So, stop being professional. And delve into your private worship and prayer life. If you have to do something deliberate to revive it, make that time to spend with Him. I've been married 39 years, and in marriage you ebb and flow. Sometimes you have to be deliberate. Like right now, I feel I need to just spend time with my husband to freshen our relationship. Because day in, day out, with the same-old, same-old routine, you begin to take each other for granted and settle into something that, while possibly still solid and good, is lacking what could make it better and richer. It takes time.

Every day I need to take time to be with the Lord in a personal, devotional way—and not because I'm preparing a message to give out. Sometimes, we need to get away with Him to reawaken us in our love relationship—especially those of us who can become so caught up in serving God that we lose our first love. We love Him, so we want to work for Him. But then, the work overtakes the love and can become autopilot, just a profession.

In Revelation 2, Jesus said to the Ephesian church, "I know your good deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance" (v. 2). [In other words,] you're doing more now than ever—they were busy, busy, busy. They were professional Christians. And Jesus said, I have something against you. In all your busyness, you've lost your love for Me. He wants our love more than all of our works. Sometimes, we put our work before our worship, and it's not pleasing to Him. So if you decide to live your life to please Him before anybody else, you have to put your worship before anything else you do "for" Him. Then, what you do for Him comes naturally out of that worship — and that's where personal revival begins.

Adapted from InTouch Ministries.