David's Redemptive Story

A few days ago, I got a message from a man, David (not real name), who I had met when he visited our church almost two years ago. At the time, he had been clean from drug and alcohol abuse for a few months. He was separated from his wife, only allowed to see his son a handful of times a month.

Obviously this season was very difficult and challenging. He was struggling to attend church, let alone bible studies, but we managed to meet a couple of times. When we did manage to meet, he shared that he regularly feared going back to his old life of addiction.

Whenever the opportunity arose, I shared with him words of encouragement, the reality of the Spirit of Jesus working in his life and, while I could not guarantee that bad things wouldn’t happen, even a relapse, our Lord would never let go of him wherever he would find himself tomorrow.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year, David shared that he relapsed quite badly but fortunately he was in the care of a Teen Challenge rehab centre in East London. While he was recovering, I kept in touch with him now and again, advising him to not only attend church but commit to a fellowship.

Months later, and a few days ago, with the pandemic easing, David and I met in public. His demeanour was significantly better, less of an anxious vibe about him. Confident. He shared his story briefly, and asked if he could come to New City Church as he was set to move into West London, going back to work. Praise God for his desire to be in fellowship with the church! Praise God for sustaining him and protecting him through all these trials.

We have no power to change lives, but we, who follow and trust in the Lord, are able to lead others to the One that possesses this life changing power.

Over and over again, David and I spoke of God’s faithfulness. I remember how powerless I was to help him and how powerless he looked before he relapsed. Both of us could only plead for God's mercy to save him, to lead him not into temptation, for David to be delivered from evil.

God has been faithful in David’s life. Has God delivered David from evil. Yes and amen. Pray with me that God would continue to be faithful and show his faithfulness to us, even in the midst of this broken, sinful world we live in.