Something my friend Timothy (visit his blog HERE) wrote on Facebook, about how we should pray for those who have fallen away from the Lord, got me thinking. I remembered something I had read a long time ago. I couldn’t remember where I had read it, but the story has always remained with me. So I did some digging and found it.
The story is told in the context of the ‘romance’ of preaching – the fact that you never know what is going to happen when you step foot into a pulpit. But the principle is much broader – it is the romance of prayer in general. It is an illustration of how prayers can be answered in ways that we never imagined. The story has always encouraged me.
I knew a poor man who had been converted from a terrible life and sin and who had become a fine Christian. That we when I was in South Wales. But, afterwards, unfortunately, for various reasons this poor fellow had become a backslider and had fallen very deeply into sin. He had run away from his wife and children to live with another woman of a very poor type. They had come to London and there they had lived in sin. He had squandered his money, and he had actually gone home and told his wife a life in order to get further money out of her. The house in which they lived was in their joint names, but he got this changed and put into his name. Then he sold it in order to get the money. He had thus gone very very far into the ‘far country’, he had sinned terribly. But now the money had finished and the woman had deserted him. He was so utterly miserable and ashamed that he had solemnly decided to commit suicide, feeling that in his deep state of repentance God would forgive him. But he could not forgive himself, and he felt that he had no right ever to approach his family again. So he solemnly decided to walk to Westminster Bridge and throw himself into the Thames. He was actually on the way to do this. Just as the poor soul arrived at the bridge, Big Ben struck half-past-six – six-thirty. Suddenly a thought flashed into his mind and he said to himself, ‘He (referring to me) will now be just entering his pulpit for his evening service.’ So he decided that he would come and listen to me once more before he put an end to his life. He made his way to Westminster Chapel in about six minutes, got through the front door, walked up the stairs and was just entering the gallery when he heard these words, ‘God have mercy on the backslider.’ I uttered that petition in my prayer and they were literally the first words he heard. Everything was put right immediately…and he was restored… (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, pp. 302-303).
In hearing that prayer, the man heard precisely what he needed to hear, and God was pleased to grant the petition. And it is the reason why I often pray for backsliders in general, ‘God have mercy on the backslider.’
- Jeremiah 3:22 ‘Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.’ Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
Thank you Lord for your Mercy!