ODM For Champions 5th October 2021
ARCHIE WILLIAMS: DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU
BASIC SCRIPTURES: GENESIS 50:14-20; PSALM 43:5
We started the moving story of Archie Williams in yesterday’s devotion. Born in March 23, 1961, he spent more than 36 years in a Maximum Security Prison, The Louisiana Penitentiary for a crime he didn’t commit.
ODM For Champions 5th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU
As he spoke to the press following his release, he reflected on what kept him going for decades behind bars, He said don’t know how it can be explained, but all is about faith in God.
ODM For Champions 5th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU
When he was asked how he kept going through fear and darkness of his time as a wrongfully incarcerated man in that infamous brutal prison, he added, my faith has always been with God all my life. I have faith that God will guide me through whatever storm. I just trust”. While in prison, he formed a band that sang gospel songs.
He also formed the habit of watching a talent show, “America’s Got Talent” (AGT) created by Simon Cowell. He told himself while in prison that he would come out one day to feature in that show. After about 24 years of campaign and legal tussle, a new analysis of fingerprints at the crime scene identified a serial rapist who died in 1996 as the man who raped the white lady, thereby proving Archie’s innocence, After getting out of prison, he decided it was time for his dream to come to pass.
ODM For Champions 5th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU
After going through a series of selection processes, he appeared in 2020 in the AGT season 15 show. He chose for his first performance Elton John’s 1914 song, DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME.” As he told his story and sang, a large number of persons in the audience wept. All 4 Judges voted for him to move to the next round. When asked about the choice of that song, he said, “I think that was a spiritual picking there.
I didn’t really pick it. It was something that my instincts told me to do. It’s like God’s Spirit spoke to me and said, This is the song I want. According to the lyrics of that song, losing everything is like the sun going down on you. We all face one challenge or the other. No matter the challenge, never lose your focus and dream. When you lose your focus or dream, you have lost everything. Abraham faced challenges.
Isaac and Jacob faced challenges and Joseph faced challenges. None of them allowed the sun to go down on them, none of them lost focus Just because of what they went through. Joseph did not allow the conspiracy of his brothers, the false accusation of potiphar ‘s wife, his wrongful incarceration and the forgetfulness of the baker to let the sun go down on him.
He summarized the conspiracy of his brothers in one sentence, But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20). ODM For Champions 5th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU
Take today’s Psalm as a scripture of encouragement. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Never let the sun go down on you because you shall still praise Him very soon.
PRAYER POINTS: Take Song 2: Stand up for Jesus.
1. Father, no matter what I am going through now, by your grace, keep Joseph, my dreams will come to pass.
- NO prison, no condition shall bury my talent/dream in Jesus name.
- By Your grace, the sun will not go down on my life.
ODM For Champions 5th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU
