Let me tell you about a little child who by the power of the Holy Spirit overcame a great temptation. She was a child naturally of extreme self-will, and if opposed in any way, she directly became exceedingly obstinate, sometimes remaining so many hours.
One of these occasions showed itself when she came into my room to have her daily Bible lesson. She was learning the 23rd Psalm. Her parents had gone abroad for a time, and were soon returning; and I said to her,
“You don’t yet know your Psalm very well, I should like you to know it much better before your mamma comes home.”
“O! but,” she said, “I must know it for mamma, I must say it quite well to her.”
I knew this cost her much, as she was not fond of learning, and found difficulty in retaining by heart.
She then began to repeat the Psalm, making several mistakes at the fourth verse,
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” I said to her, “I want E——to say that verse over till she says it without one fault.”
After having repeated it three times with many faults, she stopped short, and said in a very decided manner, plainly showing she meant what she said,
“I won’t say it anymore; I can’t, I don’t want to.”
I paid no attention to this, but simply told her to say it again; then she looked very angry, and exclaimed,
“I said I would not say it again, I’m not going to; I won’t say it anymore;” and her little face, before radiant with sunshine at the thought of “saying it quite well to mamma,” now looked dark and cloudy, as though some distant storm were brewing, and I saw with pain she was in one of her sadly obstinate fits, and that the Evil one was getting the better of her.
Again she was asked to say it; again she sternly refused.
Seeing it to be quite useless to ask her anymore, and knowing that self-will and obstinacy are peculiarly difficult to deal with, I thought it best to turn her mind to something else.
As I had said, she was to repeat the verse till she knew it perfectly, I wished to keep to it, at the same time knowing it required a far higher power than mine to make her willing to obey, so strong was her will.
After waiting a few minutes, I silently asked the Lord to guide and show His mind about it.
It may seem to you a little thing, but nothing concerning any of His children is small in the Father’s eyes, because the Father looks at them as in Christ, and all that concerns them concerns His Son, and therefore, must accordingly be precious to Him; and we are told the Father loves the believer with the same love with which He loves the Son, ( John 17:2323I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)) and that we know is measureless! We can never bear in mind too much that God delights for us to go to Him about everything.
After a deep silence, I said, “Can E——tell me what Jesus did when He was down here on earth, and Satan came and tempted Him to do a very naughty thing, and one that would have disobeyed and displeased God very much?”
“No, I can’t,” she said.
“Shall I tell you?”
“Yes.”
I then told her how Satan tempted the Lord Jesus three times, and how He told Satan to go behind Him, and overcame the Tempter by using God’s own Word, and she seemed much struck, and it was touching to watch the struggle that was going on within.
“Does Jesus want us to be like Him?” I said.
“Yes,” she said.
“Yes,” I repeated; “and it is the Father’s wish to make us like His Son in everything. He is thinking of it all day long; and every little thing that happens to God’s children down here, is to make us more and more like His Son. That is God’s one object concerning all those who are washed in the blood of Jesus.”
“If,” I continued, “Satan came and tempted me to be very naughty, and I said, ‘go away, Satan,’ do you think he would go?”
She looked up in my face, and said slowly,
“Yes; —I think he would, and I think God would make him go away,” and without another word she turned her little head round.
She did not know with what tearful joy I saw those little lips move; but what was my joy in comparison to the joy it gave the heart of God, to see a little child scarce more than five years old overcoming an evil passion by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In another moment she looked up in my face, with almost tears on her own, and said,
“I will say that verse now, I will say it as often as you like, till—till— I know it quite well.”
The victory was won—the child was happy—God was praised, and I silently thanked the Lord for thus glorifying Himself in one so young, and in bringing His own Word home with power to her young heart; feeling it to be a lesson from Himself that both the child and I would never forget.
ML 12/20/1931