Our ten-year-old son Trey has been struggling with spiritual things for a couple years. When he was eight he wondered how we know that “our God” is the one true God. He did not have the vocabulary at the time but what he said was that since he could not know for sure, he could not worship any god for fear he would worship the wrong one. (Trey was not an ordinary eight-year-old, anymore than he is an “ordinary” ten-year-old.) His mother and I told him he needed to believe that Jesus is the one true God, but that his mother and I could not convince him this is so. We told him that only God could reveal Himself to Trey but that if Trey truly sought Him, God would do just that. In the past year Trey became convinced that all other gods are false, though he still did not know if he believed in the God of the Bible.
Several months ago Trey asked me if he died and did not believe in Jesus, would he go to hell. The only loving answer was to tell him that apart from faith in Jesus, he would go to hell when he dies. (That was the most difficult answer to a question I have ever given.)
Trey sat with us during the second service Easter morning. That night around 8:00PM Trey came to us and asked how a person can be saved, “like that guy in church this morning.” (A member of our church had given his testimony of how he came to faith very late in life.) We told Trey the same thing we have been telling him since he was learning to talk. We told him he must trust God to save him. He must believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for his sins and that He rose again. He wanted to know what he had to DO. We told him there are no magic words or special prayer or anything that he can do – he simply must believe. In response he said, “Oh. Okay. I’m going to bed now.”
That was not quite the response for which we have hoped and prayed.
About a half hour later Trey came downstairs to ask if his mother and I would wake him early the next morning so we could pray with him. I asked him why. He told us that he had prayed to ask God to give him faith to believe in Him so he can be saved. At that Trey burst into tears and jumped into my arms. I asked him why he was crying and he said, “Because I am so happy.”
The next morning when I took my two school-age children to school, Trey and I spoke to his teacher in the hallway (he attends a Christian, classical school) to tell her the great news that God had converted him. Trey raised his arms as if he had just won a gold medal and exclaimed, “I have new life!”
Our God is so very kind.
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Praise God!!!! What Great news!!!! Little does he know yet,what a great new life he has.
— Shannon Mar 29, 04:36 PM #