March 22

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. (Psalm 91:15)

If we call on God for deliverance and for victory over sin and every evil, God will not turn a deaf ear to our call. I don’t care how black the life has been, I don’t care what the past record has been, I don’t care how disobedient or how one may have backslidden and wandered; if one really wants to come back, God accepts the willing mind, God will hear prayer, and answer.

Some people say they can’t call. Perhaps you cannot make an eloquent prayer—I hope you can’t—I have heard about all the eloquent prayers I want to. But you can say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Only be sincere, and God will hear your cry. Mark you, there is a sham cry. Mothers understand that; they know when their children cry in earnest, or whether it is a sham cry. Let the child give a real cry of distress, and the mother will leave everything and fly to her child.

I have been forty years in Christian work, and I have never known God to disappoint any man or woman who was in earnest about their soul’s salvation or were seeking a more consecrated life. I know lots of people who pretend to be in earnest, but their prayers are never answered.