Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | When R. A. Torrey was a young man, he had no faith in God or the Bible.  His mother, however, was an earnest Christian and pleaded with him to turn to God for forgiveness and salvation. She constantly prayed for his conversion.

One day he said to her, “I’m tired of it all.  I don’t want to hear any more about my sins and your prayers; I’m leaving.” His weeping mother pled with him, but he would not be deterred.

Finally, she said, “Son, you are going the wrong way, but when you come to the darkest hour of all–when everything seems lost and gone–if you will earnestly call on your mother’s God, and seek Him with all your heart, you will get the help you need.”

Torrey went deeper and deeper into sin.  At last one night in a hotel room, unable to sleep, weary of life, with problems pressing down him on every hand, he decided, “I’ll get out of bed, take that gun I have in the drawer, and end my life.”

But as he stood up, his mother’s words came back to him.  Convicted by the Holy Spirit, he fell on his knees and cried out, “O God of my mother, if there be such a Being, I need help.  I need light.  If you will give it to me, I will follow you.”

In a moment his dark heart was filled with the light of God’s love. With tears running down his face, he put his trust in Christ as his Savior.  He then hurried home to tell his mother that her prayers had been answered.

Reuben A. Torrey became an outstanding evangelist and helped win thousands to Christ.  He founded the Bible Institute of Los Angeles–now known as Biola University.

Torrey learned the reality of the scripture that says, “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of his troubles” (Psalm 34:6). He will do the same for you!