“Your prayers…have come up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4).
Some say God only hears “the sinner’s prayer” from unbelievers; Cornelius knew better. Take the story of Johnny who came from Italy to find a better life in America. Day after day he looked for a job. Then someone told him an Italian preacher, Caesar Patrizio, was giving Good News nearby. The message was from John 3:16. Johnny sent to heaven this desperate prayer, “O God, if You love me, please get me a job, so I can feed my wife and kids.” The next day he was offered one loading vegetables for 75 cents a day! “Wasn’t God a-good?” he said. The boss soon gave him some vegetables as well. With the bushel on his shoulder, he walked the seven miles home, where he shared the bounty. Then Johnny said, “Wife, if God goin’-a love me like-a this, I goin’-a love Him back.”
No doubt Heaven was moved at the sight of the little family discovering that “the goodness of God leads you to repentance” (Rom 2:4).