Teenie's Text Or, I Will Trust and Not Be Afreaid

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 6
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“WEE TEENIE"―as they called her―lay for many weary days in the hospital, suffering from a disease in the joint. At times she was able to sit up in her crib and look out at the window, to see the girls with their skipping ropes playing on the school playground, but for most part she was compelled to lie. Some little girls came in to visit her one night, bringing with them a posy of flowers, which was very much prized by Teenie. One of them brought, a pretty Text Card, which she had colored with her own hand, and having obtained permission from the matron, they put it up at the top of Teenie's cot. The words of it were―"I WILL TRUST and not be AFRAID." After they were gone, Teenie began to repeat it. When lying awake during the night, after the lights were lowered, she kept saying it to herself; and next day a lady called, and sitting down by her side, told Teenie what it meant. “It means that those who trust in Jesus are not afraid of death and judgment; they need not be, for Jesus has borne their punishment instead. He who had no sins of His own came down and died for those who had many. He died for little girls like you. Now He has gone back again to heaven, and there He wants to save all who put their trust in Him. No one ever yet trusted in Him and perished. He says in His blessed Word that "He knoweth them that trust in Him" (Nah. 1:77The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. (Nahum 1:7)). If thou can say from the heart "I will trust," then Jesus will save you at once and forever." She had never heard of such wondrous things before. To be saved now, and to go to heaven to be with Jesus after her earthly life was past she did desire, but she had no idea that this was the way to reach it. She had been taught at home otherwise, and nobody had ever spoken to her before, since she came to the hospital about these things. She lay thinking after the lady had gone, and looking up at the words of her text "I will trust." She thought with herself, I can say that with my heart, for I do now trust in Jesus. Then she repeated the latter part, "and not be afraid." Yes, that was what it said. "Not be afraid" of death or judgment, for, as the lady said, she "need not be" when Jesus had suffered both in her stead. This was something new to Teenie. She trusted Jesus, and He saved her. The text was now doubly precious, and all who came to see her were told what it had done for her. She had trusted Jesus: He had saved her, and now she confessed that she was truly His, and that she loved Him, because He had loved and died for her. Reader, do, you love the Lord Jesus? Of course you cannot, unless you have believed that He has loved you. His love believed, and received, begets love to Him in return; and looking upon His dying agony, His pierced hands and wounded side, all for us, we cannot fail to say―"We love Him, because He first loved us.”