One of the worst bits of luck that ever happened to him, thought the gambler, was when his wife turned "religious." She had found the Lord Jesus Christ to be her Savior and her Friend, but he could not understand it at all. Everything was changed. He had had a big room built in his new house for dancing and parties, and she would no longer join in. What could a man such as he was do with a wife like that?
Then, too, he was a gambler; the race track drew him like a magnet. His wife had not minded going with him and having a flutter on her own account in former days, but she had given that up, too. He was so angry that he told his friends that he would like to turn her out of the house.
His house was close to the track, and the races were on. He hurried home from the office at noon, gulped down his lunch, and dashed off to the track in his usual way. And his wife went to her room and, kneeling before God, prayed for her husband and asked that he might lose his money, for she thought that that was the only way in which he could be cured of the gambling fever.
When he got to the track, he found his friends already crowding around the bookmakers. They seemed to be backing every horse in the field. Instead of joining them, he stood back and watched them and almost involuntarily said to himself, "What a pack of fools!" Then he added after a moment's thought, "And I'm one of them!"
God was answering his wife's prayer on the spot, for he there and then lost all interest in the horses and wandered off the track without making a bet, a thoroughly miserable man.
He became a mystery to himself. Why couldn't he sleep at night? He blamed his wife, and would get up and drink and rage around the house, swearing, and then return to bed ashamed of himself and yet angry.
The Christian wife had some new friends who loved the Savior and believed in prayer. She invited them to her house one afternoon to offer up definite and earnest prayer to God that He would break down her husband's rebellious will and save his soul.
The praying was to continue from three to four o'clock. At that same time her husband was going over his books in his office in the city, completely ignorant of what was going on at home. When he had finished, it was 3:55. He pushed the books away and exclaimed, "I'm done! I've reached my limit! Something's got to happen!"
Suddenly in that quiet office a voice that seemed to him to be perfectly audible said in his ear and heart, "Are you stronger than God?"
That was the point. He was fighting against God, wrestling hard against God's determination to bless him. He was flinging God's mercy in His face, thinking that he was stronger than God, and that was the cause of all his misery. Filled with awe, he buried his head in his hands and said, "God forbid that I should pretend to be stronger than He."
He had reached his limit in a different way from what he thought. He was done with the fight he had been waging, and something did happen—the greatest and best thing of all. He saw the way of blessing, bowed his knees before God, and then and there confessed himself to be a sinner indeed. He put his whole confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
I have heard him, in the very room in his house that was built for dancing, telling the story of his conversion to nearly fifty people. With a face radiant with joy he told them of Christ as the living Savior whose blood had cleansed him and whose love had satisfied him. That one-time gambler is a happy man now.
I pass on the story for the sake of those who are looking for satisfaction in the excitement of a life of pleasure. The end of these things is death. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23). And, "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).