AT Sunday School one day the teacher urged the boys and girls to receive the Lord Jesus while their hearts were young and tender.
“When the Lord Jesus knocks on the door of your heart,” said he, “let Him in for every time you say, ‘No,’ to Him, your heart gets a little harder. If you keep on saying, ‘No,’ to Him, your heart will become hard as stone. The Saviour will cease to knock and turn away; then your last hope of being saved will be gone, and you will die in your sins.”
Little Anne, just five years old, listened with rapt attention to what her teacher said. She had no fears about her own salvation, for young as she was she had already trusted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour and knew the peace and joy of His presence dwelling in her heart. But she was thinking all the time about her father, who never went anywhere, never prayed nor read God’s Word.
After Sunday School Anne ran home and climbed up onto her Daddy’s lap as he sat in his chair. “Daddy,” she said. “Feel your heart. Is it getting like stone?”
“Whatever are you talking about?” asked her father, surprised.
“At Sunday school today,” replied little Anne, “teacher said, ‘If you keep saying, “No,” to Jesus, your heart will get hard like stone,’ and Daddy, I hope your heart isn’t like stone, ‘cause I want you to be saved.”
Bill Adams was both shocked and angry. “What have they been telling this child?” he asked his wife who had first taken their little daughter to Sunday school.
Tears came into Mrs. Adams’ eyes as she explained how much God loved him, that the Lord Jesus had died for him and wanted to save him from his sins. “If you keep sang, ‘No,’ to Him,” she went on, “your heart will become hard as stone. Then you will die in your sins.”
The feel of his little girl’s arms around his neck and the sight of the tears in his wife’s eyes melted Bill Adams’ heart. He felt God had spoken to him of late, and now this was the hour of decision. He was silent for a while, but it was evident there was a great struggle going on in his heart. Satan was there seeking to hinder a soul from coming to Christ.
But finally he said, “I’m not going to say, ‘No,’ to Jesus any longer. I’m going to settle this thing right now!” Getting down on his knees, with his loving wife and little daughter kneeling alongside of him, he prayed, telling the Lord Jesus what a sinner he had been; he asked Him to come into his heart and wash his sins away. When he rose from his knees he was a saved and happy man.
ML-09/10/1972