I want to tell you today a true story of a little girl just five years old. Little Sandra, one Sunday afternoon, was listening to her mother reading the parable of the rich man in Luke’s Gospel, chapters 12:16-21. His ground yielded good, crops, and his barns were full. Then he said, “I will pull down my barns, and build greater;... and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” This man was “Not rich toward God”; his only thoughts were of this world. But then he heard the solemn voice of God sang to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
It was these words that went to little Sandra’s heart, as though God Himself had spoken them to her. She could not forget them. They rang in her ears, no matter what she was doing and wherever she went, all through the week that followed. When she played with her friends, those words would come again and again, and she could not shake off the thought that almost frightened her—Am I ready to meet God now, this night? Her conscience always answered, “No, you know well you are not!”
Day after day passed by without one ray of comfort for little Sandra.
Then one Sunday afternoon, she again listened while her mother read another parable from this same gospel—Luke 17:9-149Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. 10So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. 11And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. (Luke 17:9‑14). Then the little girl lost the burden of her sins which always troubled her soul, for instead of thinking of God as a Judge who must punish her for her sins, she found He was her greatest friend who had given His own Son to die as her Saviour.
This parable tells of two prayers made by two men. The one pleased the man who offered it; the other pleased God who heard it.
The first man trusted in himself, that he was righteous; he looked down upon others, so he thanked God that he was not like other people who, it is easy to see, are sinners. He also reminded God what good works he had done. What need of a Saviour for one so good and religious? He fasted two days of the week, and he gave a tenth of what he had to God. What more could possibly be expected of him? I wonder if there is anyone among our readers who thinks like this man did. You know somebody worse than you are, and you think, I’m not so bad as so-and-so, I’m glad to say. You do not yet know how utterly, hopelessly bad you are in God’s sight. The other man had nothing good to say of himself, and his only prayer was, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” This was a cry from his heart. It reached the ear of God, for He loves to answer prayer.
Next morning when little Sandra awoke, the burden of her sins still troubled her, and she remembered this parable. Sitting up in her bed, she prayed that same prayer: “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” from her heart, and God answered it immediately. It showed her that all her sins had been laid on Jesus, when He hung on the cross at Calvary, when He cried that bitter cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
So it was through believing that Jesus had died for her and had taken all her burden of sins away, that God spoke comfort to little Sandra’s heart at this time. The joy that filled her heart she could never forget all her life afterward. And if you, dear unsaved one, own bore God that you are a sinner, you will find Him rich in mercy to you too, that He will forgive you your sins, for Christ’s sake.
ML 07/28/1968