The Strongest Thing in The World

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7 NIV

 

Praying child.

      One of the first lessons that we learn after we begin to talk is to pray. Mr. Gladstone, one of the greatest men of all time, lived to be almost ninety years old, and he said that he had never gone to bed at night without kneeling down and praying that little prayer that his mother had taught him when he was a baby:

"Now I lay me down to sleep, 

I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep; 

If I should die before I wake, 

I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take."

       When we pray we talk to God. Where is God? Some one says, "God is in heaven." Yes, but He is here too. God is everywhere. He is in this room, and He is in your home, and along the street, and just everywhere. But some boy or girl says to me, ''How do I know that He is here? I cannot see Him." No, of course you cannot see Him. There are plenty of things that you are not able to see. You cannot see the wind that rattles the shutters and pulls up your kite. You cannot see the electricity that makes the cars go along the streets. God is a Spirit, and a spirit cannot be seen. When you pray, you need not be afraid that He will not hear, for He is always here by us when we speak. He is so close to us that He can hear the softest whispered-prayer that we ever utter.

       If I were to ask every boy in this house to tell me what is the strongest thing in the whole world, probably each boy would tell me something different. One boy would say that an elephant is the strongest. Another would tell me that it is one of the big engines that haul those long trains of loaded cars across the Virginia mountains, and another boy might say that the mightiest thing in the whole world is one of those great battle-ships out there in Hampton Roads.

       But there is something that is mightier than any of these. It is prayer.

       If the big front door of this church were locked and you were to try to come in you could not open it. You might push and pull and get all your friends to help you, but you would not be able to move it. Just then a little girl comes down the street and says, " I can open that door." You say to her, "What, you open that door? You haven't half as much strength as I have, and we all of us together cannot open it." But the little girl takes a small piece of steel about as large as one of her fingers and puts it in the lock and gives it a little turn, and the door is open. That tiny key in the little girl's hand has done more than all of you together.

       Prayer is the little key that unlocks the treasure house, where God keeps the good things that He has for those who love Him.

       Those who have that key and use it receive wonderful things from God. Long ago in the land of Israel there was a great drought. There had been no rain for several years, and there was no water to drink. The Prophet Elijah went up to the top of a hill and prayed to God to send some rain. Then he sent his servant to see if there were any clouds in the sky. The servant came back and said that there was not one. But Elijah kept on praying, and after he had prayed seven times the servant came and told him that there was a cloud coming up, and very soon the rain began to fall.

       That prayer of Elijah's had done more than all the power of the king could do. It had brought the rain. This is a key that every boy and girl can have and use if they will.

       I know a man who came home late one night, and when he tried to open the door he found that he had lost the key. He tried to get into the house, but everything was fastened tight and he had to go back to the hotel for the night.

       There are many people who cannot get into the treasure house of God's heart. They have lost the key. They have forgotten to pray. Whatever you do be sure not to lose the key. S. N. Hutchinson