Testimony of Abel

Children have a lot to teach us. Their hearts have not yet hardened in unbelief like the hearts of adults. God used my six-year-old nephew, Able to show me what child-like faith looked like. Before taking a trip to Nigeria, I had asked my nephews to pray for me. I was taking a suitcase of Bibles to an orphanage in Benin and planning to do Bible Clubs and evangelism. But Abel assumed I was taking Bibles for all of the children in Africa. A few months after my trip, I shared with my nephews stories and more prayer requests. “Let’s pray for more children in Africa to have Bibles,” I said. Abel looked at me confused, “But you already did that…” I tried to explain to Abel how I had only brought a small number of Bibles and there was still a great need. But he had believed that I had brought Bibles to all of the children of Africa. Even in the face of my own confession, my nephew’s faith in me remained strong. There seemed to be no place in his heart or mind to admit a thought of me failing. The struggle showed in his face. Eventually, he shook his head and said, “You already did that.”

My nephew could only believe that I was able, that I had the resources and the willingness, and that I accomplished the task. My heart broke when I saw his faith. It was a faith born of love, and in such a weak and frail object. But as Abel looked in my face, still with faith, I saw how I ought to look at God. Nothing doubting. I too had prayed for Bibles to be given to the children of Africa. But I had not looked in my Father’s face with such faith. My God, Who formed the worlds with a word, Who offered up His only Son at my great need, did not receive such a loving, confident look from me. I, with such a great Object of faith before me, had not even thought to ask God for Bibles for all the children of Africa. O Lord, forgive and help my unbelief. Turn me, and make me like a little child, that in my prayers, I may enter into Your kingdom.

Contributed by Lareina Kiser

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8v32