Turn to me and have mercy on me;
show your strength in behalf of your servant;
save me, because I serve you
just as my mother did.
- Psalm 86:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
- James 5:16
“James [A. Garfield] had swallowed a large quantity of water and was chilled to the bone. He developed a high fever as he trudged toward home. Reaching the little house, he saw a light, and through the window there was his mother on her knees, an open Bible before her, praying, ‘Oh, turn to me, and have mercy upon me; give strength to Thy servant, and save the son of Thy handmaid.’ James knew this was the prayer his mother offered for him daily.
“In Psalm 86, King David was in a crisis, and he begged the Lord to have mercy on him, to help him, to show him strength, to help him for he was the son of a godly mother. The New International Version says, ‘Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant; save me, because I serve you just as my mother did.’ It is one of the very few biblical references to David’s mother. In the older translations, the verse simply said, ‘Save the son of your maidservant,’ and Eliza made that her prayer.
“Hearing those words, James opened the door and fell into her arms. Eliza nursed her son to health, and shortly afterward, he attended a revival meeting. Listening carefully to the sermons, he told the preacher, ‘If I could be satisfied that what you have taught tonight is simple truth and would secure happiness, I would embrace the faith.’ The next night, James gave his life to Christ and soon began preaching the gospel.”
- Robert J. Morgan, 100 Bible Verses That Made America
In my recent trip to visit the grandchildren, the oldest of them went with me to Nashville, to sell used books and games. One of the books that I purchased in return was 100 Bible Verses That Made America by Robert J. Morgan. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the birth of the USA, I thought I would do a condensed mini-series on some of these verses, four posts per week for a few weeks – maybe not all 100 verses.
James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) was a pastor and revivalist and then a state Senator before the war, a Union Army Major General and then a politician after the war. His mother became a single mother when James’ father died when James was two years old. His mother, a devout Christian decided to raise her five children by faith in God alone. They grew up in poverty in northeast Ohio. She prayed constantly, relying heavily on Psalm 86, asking God for mercy. Eliza would become the first mother to be at her son’s inauguration and the first mother to live in the White House. Sadly, James A. Garfield’s life was cut short by assassination. He only served 199 days. The bullet did not kill him directly. The surgeon used an instrument that was not sanitized in extracting the bullet in July and President Garfield died from the infection in September. Only William Henry Harrison served a shorter time in office.
As a teenager, James Garfield worked on the P&O canal, a short-lived passage from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. The expansion of the railroad made the canal unnecessary. The quote above speaks of when he was caught in a coil of rope and went overboard. He reached out for a rope and was able to pull himself back onboard. But he was near death due to the exposure in the cold water.
He was convinced that his life had been spared due to the prayers of his mother.
But even when he grew up seeing and hearing his mother’s prayers for her family, it took a near death experience to bring Garfield to the point of accepting Jesus as his Savior.
Being in church does not save you. Having a life-giving relationship with Jesus saves us. For Garfield, it took a plunge into icy waters and in praying and flailing for help. He found the rope that he used to get back onboard. Even then, the cold water had already taken a toll on him.
Garfield may have focused on the Scripture that his mother used, but his mother lived James 5:16. In the old KJV, faithful prayer “availeth much.”
We need to keep praying.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
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