Chapters: 1. Why Don't Men Obey God?
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8 CHILDLIKE
FAITH
I would like to share with you a story of trust and faith.
It is a simple story, but an important part of my early
experience in believing God. It has since taught me several
lessons. The Lord helping, it continues to do so.
While we still lived in Windsor, when I was four or five
years old, my friend across the street received a beautiful,
little Shetland pony from his uncle. From the front yard of our
home I watched as the little crate, in which it was delivered,
was opened. Having never journeyed far from our village, I had
never seen a pony before. I didn't know what to think!
That animal was beautiful! It was brown and white, with a
perfectly shaped face which told me that it was good natured and
well-behaved. I was anxious to get a closer look, but for some
time my mother would not permit me to go over to the neighbor's
home, fearing that I might be an imposition on them.
Since I couldn't see the pony very well from the ground, I
would climb up on our fence as high as possible and look down
across the road at it. Hanging there as long as I was able, I
would watch it graze or move about. When it disappeared behind
the shed or beyond the hill, I would have to get down and wait
until I could catch a glimpse of it again. As soon as I would
spot it, I would climb the fence, crane my neck, and look and
look. I thought, "Oh, won't it be wonderful if Mother someday
lets me go over to see that pony!"
On that memorable day when my mother said, "You may
59 go over to see Keith's pony now, Loran," I ran as fast as my
little legs would carry me. Across the street I went, down the
lane, into the neighbor's barn, and scrambled up over the
manager. That beautiful pony was only about seven feet from me!
I was thrilled. "This is great!" I said to myself. I thought
that pony was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen,
and began to hope in my heart that someday I might have a pony
like Keith Patty's.
(Over the years, as I have reviewed this experience of deep
excitement which I had as a boy, I have sometimes wondered how
God finds us. Does He see us jubilant and impassioned over the
marvelous truths of His Word? Is the Faith burning in our souls
so that we care more for our relatives and friends finding Jesus
than we do about the latest fashions or the newest baby in town?
(I have seen many people so excited at ball games that they
would yell and jump up and down; at prayer meeting, however, most
individuals are listless and greatly lacking in enthusiasm. It
tells me that there is great need in most of our congregations,
or we would be more inspired by the Kingdom of God than by these
passing activities of earth. It appears, in many of our
churches, that those professing to be Christians actually need to
be truly converted and transformed, or they would possess an
innate excitement over the things of God`s Kingdom.)
A few years later, when we had moved to Parker and I was in
the third grade. I remember returning home from school one day
for lunch. Rounding the corner at the porch I looked east toward
the little red barn, and what do you think I saw?--There stood a
black Shetland pony! It was a beautiful, beautiful pony, with
one white spot on the forehead and two above the shoulder!
As fast as I could, I ran down to where the pony was
grazing. The owners, an elderly couple by the name of Henhizer,
were sitting in the buggy nearby having their lunch. He saw
60 that I was delighted over the pony and asked, "Would you like to
ride Queen?"
"Oh, yes!" I told him. I had been waiting a long time to
get this close to a pony, ever since I prayed in my heart, "I
would like to have a pony like Keith Patty's."
Mr. Henhizer said, "Just a moment and I will get her ready."
I learned that they had come that morning approximately eighteen
miles in their little rig from the town of Ridgeville. They were
enroute to Muncie, but instead of taking the more direct route
west through Albany to State Road 67 they had come all the way
south to Farmland, then west on Road 32 to Parker. "We needed to
have a sandwich," the Henhizers informed me; "so we unhitched
Queen here to let her rest awhile." They could have stopped many
places up and down the highway, but they came to our house, a
block off the main road. Of all the seven hundred people in the
village, here they were at our place!
I'll tell you, if you walk with God and trust Him, He will
have the very thing for which you are waiting come to your place
sometime. One of these days, when you are not planning it and
least expect it, He will send it by. You will probably not
receive what you plan, but if you are really looking to Jesus and
wanting Him more than anything else, He will give you the desires
of your heart when you are not anticipating it.
Never try to get anything, only walk with Jesus and He will
trust you with the best: what you need when you need it. He
might send it soon, maybe later, perhaps after a long time; but
God will provide. He`s known to give surprises to all His
faithful pilgrims.
And I was certainly surprised that day. I rode a pony for
the first time in my life. Oh, the delight, the interest, the
enthusiasm that was in my heart! If I could paint it in a
picture, you would each chuckle, I am sure. In fact, it would do
your heart good, because I was so wonderfully overjoyed. My
child heart was thrilled to the limit.
61 When mother called me to come in for lunch that day, I
wasn't much interested in food. Of course, when she said,
"Come," I had to go; there wasn't any question about that. I
tied the pony to the fence and went to the house. We had prayer
and ate our soup beans, but I wanted to finish as quickly as I
could to get back outside and ride Queen every possible minute
before school took up. And that is what I did.
When I ran back to school that afternoon the bell was
already ringing and I had to hurry. I said to myself, "For two
to three years I have been waiting for a pony, and this is the
one!" All afternoon the pony was running through my mind. "When
school is over," I thought to myself, "I will get Howard, my
friend. Both of us can hitch up the goat to the little wagon and
haul the debris out of the barn to the garden. We will get the
barn ready for my pony, because that is the one I have been
waiting for." Somehow I knew in my heart that Queen belonged to
me.
Howard and I worked diligently that night, and again the
next evening, cleaning all the accumulation of rubbish from the
barn. By the third night we had completed the task. Now wasn't
that unusual for a nine-year-old boy to decide to clean up the
barn so that his pony could come? I wanted to have everything
ready. I simply had a child-like faith that this was the pony
God had promised me.
I have since discovered that we cannot have faith unless we
have love, for faith works and lives by love, as the Bible tells
us in the fifth chapter of Galatians. If
you wish for more faith, remember that your faith will be in
proportion to your love. If you love, you will hear the Word of
God: and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God.
Faith will flourish in the heart filled with God's love, the
precious love of Jesus Christ. Sensual, worldly love will fail
you, but the love which Jesus gives never fails. A heart of love
provides the right soil for faith to grow. If there are any
rocks of doubt, darkness, sin, or lust in your heart, then faith
is choked, twisted, and blotted out.
62 In order to maintain a holy faith, you will be making
everything ready in your heart by clearing out the debris of
pride and self-reliance. You will be confessing all of your
bitterness and resentment, for faith recoils from such inward
disorder. Nor can faith dwell in a heart cluttered with
criticism and contention. You must clear out as well all
questioning and analyzation (trying to find out all the answers,
seeking to know "Why?" and "How?")--because faith only makes its
abode in a heart free from the litter of carnal characteristics.
After three days I was saying, "Let's get the manager fixed
up for my pony!"
Many years later my mother shared with me that, during those
days, my father was somewhat alarmed. He would ask her, "Did you
give that boy reason to believe that he was going to get that
pony?"
And she would insist, "Eldon, I haven't told him a thing."
"Well, I can't understand it," Dad would say. "He has been
cleaning that barn for three days and telling everyone that his
pony is coming."
About ten days later, my father took my brothers, Richard
and Warren, and myself into the Standard Oil bulk plant in Muncie
to get some petroleum products. We were in one of those old
Fords which had a middle door. The windows, you may remember,
didn't crank up: there was a strap with which you pulled them up
or down. In the front, a rather tiny seat folded forward to
permit one to get into the back seat more easily.
The gravel on old Route 32 was worn into ridges, like a
washboard, and it just bumped, bumped us much of the way. During
the ride home I had become drowsy. I was somewhat peevish and
wanting to lie down to really rest. Pulling up to the front of
that little red barn, my father said, "Loran, how would you like
to open the barn door?"
Now, if you ask a child if he would "like" to do something,
he will probably respond as I did. You see, I was a peevish and
sleepy nine-year-old boy. You know how they can be
63 sometimes. Many older people occasionally get that way as well--
cross and contrary, not wanting to be disturbed; wanting to keep
comfortable in their own little corner. I said, "No."
Then my dad spoke again. This time it was not a request, it
was a command. "Son, you get out now. Open the door." When I
received the order, I moved right away. He only had to tell me
once, for I was taught not to delay. If an earthly parent needs
to tell a child more than one time, then there is something in
that child which must be broken. God cannot do much with a man
or a woman who has not obeyed when he or she was a child. There
is so much to break up in persons who have not been taught
obedience as children. They are unwilling most times to pay the
price which God asks.
This is why we are hesitant to obey God. This why we are so
reluctant to obey God and do what He tells us. The lack
of obedience in the church goes all the way back to the
heart of a child when he was very little, whether or not
he was tender and willing to be obedient to his mother
and father. Much of our disobedience to God now goes back to
our inner life when we were very young (and I can feel God operating
within my heart as I tell you this).
When my father gave me the order, I was quickly out of the
car and on my way to the barn door. Taking hold of it, I started
to push it open. It was easy to move; I didn't have to push it
much at all.
Just as soon as that door opened a little bit, I saw my
pony! Queen was right there before me! I jumped up and down! I
hollered! I ran and got my arms around her neck and cried over
and over, "Oh, my pony has come! My pony has come!" I was so
happy. You talk about a child being happy--I cried with laughter
and with joy. I was so thrilled. I said, "Daddy, let's hitch up
Queen, go to the elevator, and get a bale of hay and some corn
right away!" My pony had come, and I wanted her to have
something to eat.
64 I was elated! I'm even getting blessed now as I share it
with you. Isn't it amazing that I am being blessed today about
something which God did forty-eight years ago? When you are
trusting Jesus, you still get blessed about the things God gave
you twenty years ago, forty years ago, fifty years ago. You are
delighted about it, because the more you appreciate it at the
time, the longer it will last; that is, if you are broken enough,
keep praying enough, and obey sufficiently to maintain it.
Of course, if you don't obey all the time, you will lose the
appreciation, you will lose the praise and the joy out of your
soul. The joy and the praise will stay in your heart as long as
you obey God, and it will leave you when you disobey Him.
Disobedience prevents joy from coming into your heart, leaving
you desolate and lost. Obedience brings a true holy joy to
blossom and bloom, and its fragrance grows sweeter as times goes
on.
Over the years I have often thought about that evening I was
riding, peevish and sleepy, and my father asked me if I would
"like" to get out and open the door. I was hesitant and not
really wanting to respond, but back of that door was the very
thing I desired. My father's kindly request for obedience was
lovingly taking me toward that which I had long expected, for
which I had prayed and trusted. Yet, because of my human
weakness, I did not want to open it when the opportunity came.
In a similar way, many people miss the very thing for which
they have prayed and trusted, because they hesitate to obey God's
gentle command (for He only requests us, He does not coerce us).
Instead of responding with joy when the Holy Spirit prompts them,
they either ignore the leading or begrudge the effort to open the
door.
If there is something you want very much, keep trusting for
it. Be prepared when you come to the door of opportunity.
Listen to your Father's voice when He speaks. Hop right down
from your comfortable corner and push back the obstacles.
65 Don't let the bumps of misunderstanding and struggle in this life
lull you to sleep. In this spiritual slumber you won't move for
God and do what He says. But as you persevere upon the way of
trust and praise, you'll be alert and able to know when you are
near the goal.
Do you know that when the pony arrived that day, my father
gave a check for the complete price of it? The very day my Queen
came, she had been purchased in full for me by my father.
Sometime there will come a day when that very thing for which you
have been trusting so long is right here, and it is yours: all
you have to do is continue trusting and believing. Your Father
has provided all that you need. You will receive it after a
while. Don't press to get it: it will come in time, as you let
Him bring it to pass. A number of persons serve Jesus in order
to receive certain things which they secretly desire. But the
Lord will bring to the trusting heart everything that he needs,
as he serves God only for Himself.
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