THERE ARE a lot of verses in the Bible that tell us about praying: “Watch and pray;” “Pray without ceasing,” and many more. When I was a lad I used to think that only grown-up people could pray and that it was quite out of the question for boys and girls. But I know now that it is just as easy and just as important for children as for grown-ups to pray.
Praying is really speaking to the Lord Jesus. We can ask Him to help us and guide us, and tell Him we are sorry when we have done wrong. I should like to tell you how the Lord Jesus heard and answered the prayers of two little girls.
The first one was traveling in a car with her mother through a lonely part of the country. Night was coming on and very heavy rain was causing floods all round them. At last they could go no further and the lady knew they were lost.
Parking the car close to a wall she asked her little girl if she would be brave and spend the night in the car. This sounds all right, but I had to do it once, some years ago, and I did not like it at all. The little girl said that she would, but she wanted first of all to pray to the Lord Jesus. She had just finished when they heard the welcome sound of a dog barking. The lady went immediately to find where the dog was, and discovered they were really quite near to a house in which they could shelter for the night.
The other little girl was a friend of Mr. Bosshardt who was captured by Chinese bandits some years ago.
All the time they held him prisoner this little girl asked the Lord Jesus every night to make the bandits set him free.
They went on for some months, when one night the prayers were said and Mr. Bosshardt was not mentioned. The mother asked her little girl if she had forgotten anyone, but she said, “No.” Again she questioned her, but the little one still said, “No.” At last she said to her mother, “Oh, do you mean I have not prayed for Mr. Bosshardt? Well, there is no need; he has been set free.” And so he had. Thousands of miles away, without even his friends in China knowing it, Mr. Bosshardt had been set free and was on his way home!
ML-12/15/1974