Our Daily Manna 4th October 2021
ARCHIE WILLIAMS: NEVER GIVE UP HOPE
BASIC SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 4: 15-22
Welcome to today’s devotion. We will begn today’s encounter with the Holy Sprit using this very emotional story. You may have read or heard about the American Singer, Archie Charles Williams, who hails from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On December 9, 1982, a 31-year-old woman heard a knock on her door. Our Daily Manna 4th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: NEVER GIVE UP HOPE
She went to check the door in innocence only to encounter a man who forced the door open and entered her apartment. Our Daily Manna 4th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: NEVER GIVE UP HOPE
She was raped, stabbed in her chest and abandoned by this strange fellow. While all this was happening, Archie Williams, who was 22 years old then, was sleeping at home. The police stepped in to investigate the case. The rape victim while still in hospital on December 15 of the same year, said that her attacker was 59 to 5 11 inches tall. She also helped the police to create a sketch of the attacker.
A number of people were brought before her to identify who her attacker was, including Archie Williams. Multiple times in the line-up, the woman couldn’t identity Archie. As the story went, she was encouraged and urged by the police to point Archie out as her assailant. Despite the weak evidence, on April 21, 1983, the jury convicted Archie Williams, a black man, of attempted murder, aggravated rape an aggravated battery.
Our Daily Manna 4th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: NEVER GIVE UP HOPE
He was sentenced to 80 years imprisonment without possibility of a parole. While in prison, something worked for Archie; he never gave up hope of gaining freedom someday. He told everyone who cared to tear his story about his innocence.
Hear his words, “I know, that if only one of the people picked up my Case and read it, they would know that I’m not guilty. I am innocent.
Our Daily Manna 4th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: NEVER GIVE UP HOPE
If i could get a DNA test, it would prove my innocence. After about 11 years behind bars, the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal organization that works for overturn wrongful convictions through the use of DNA testing, picked up his case in 1985. It re-examined the case, and in 1986 filed a motion for DNA testing. After several intrigues, Arcnie Williams was set free on March 21, 2019, after spending about 37 years in prison for a crime he never committed.
In one of his interviews, he told his interviewer, “My body was in the prison, but my mind was not there. Life can sometimes be very cruel as seen in this story. There are however, attitudes that we put up that can help us weather the storms of life. Our father Abraham is one of such examples. Today’s Word tells us that Abraham hoped against hope”.
The New Living testament puts it more clearly in verse 18, “Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping – in literal terms, father Abraham never gave up hope even when there was no positive evidence. He believed that one day, what God told him would come to pass. And indeed today, Abraham is the father of many nations. No matter how tough the circumstances may be, believing that he would become the father of many nations.
No matter how tough the circumstances may be, take your mind Off them like Archie Williams. You may be in the middle of the crisis now but let your mind be off it. Father Abraham is a testimony, Archie Williams testified and he is a testimony, you too will testify.
PRAYER POINTS: Take any song of worship as led.
1. Father, by Your grace, I victim of another man’s crime. I will not bear another man’s punishment.
- Oh God, as You raised a voice and helpers for Williams in today’s story, raise helpers for me.
- Oh Lord God, give me courage, strength and grace to never give up. Pray about today now.
Our Daily Manna 4th October 2021 – ARCHIE WILLIAMS: NEVER GIVE UP HOPE
I CLAIM IT IJN