Some years ago, a minister was doing temporary duty in a seaport town in France. He had three little children, whom he loved dearly and who loved him in return with all their hearts. One evening when they came to say good-night and give him their evening kiss, he said, “You must give me two kisses tonight, for I am going away, and you won’t see me again for several days.”
They threw their little arms round his neck and kissed him many times, but when they got to their bedroom they burst into tears at the thought of parting with their dear papa, their great grief being lest he should be drowned in the stormy sea, whose big waves they had been watching that very morning from the beach. The nurse tried to comfort them, but in vain, and long after they had been in bed she could hear them sobbing softly to themselves.
At last the elder child, a boy of six, said to his sister,
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Lizzie, we’ll pray.”
The two little ones then knelt up in their beds, and in their own simple words asked the Lord Jesus to take care of their clear papa and bring him back safe, and if a storm came on while he was in the ship, to say to the waves, “Peace, be still?” as He did when He was in the boat with the disciples. When the prayer was finished, the little boy said,
“Now, Lizzie, let us go to sleep,” and in five minutes they were slumbering peacefully, all their trouble forgotten.
Now the dear children who may read this true story will learn from it to answer the question I have put at the top. Real prayer is just asking God for what we want. Those little ones wanted the dear Saviour to take care of their father on the sea. They knew He could do it for had He not saved His own disciples when there was a great storm, and so they just asked Him to do it, and felt quite sure that He would. That is a very different thing from “saying our prayers.”
Many little ones, I fear, and grown up people, too, repeat very beautiful prayers with the lips, while their hearts and their thoughts are busy with other things. They don’t really ask God for anything at all. No wonder, then, if they get nothing; this will help us to understand what the Apostle James means when he says,
Even a little child can pray, asking in the Name of Jesus, at every time of need. The Lord’s own words are:
ML 03/27/1938