When prayer saved a village

Once upon a time, during a war, a battle was fought near a small village. The losing side, when they saw that the battle was lost, ran away and left the nearby village undefended. The village was right in the path of the army that had won. Everyone in the village was very frightened, they expected that the soldiers would attack and rob them. However, one old lady didn’t seem very worried. She just sat quietly and read some prayers from her prayer book.

Her grandson asked, “Aren’t you frightened, grandmother? Tomorrow the soldiers will be here, they’ll beat us and may even kill us.” The old lady calmed him with a smile and read aloud from her prayer book. Then, she prayed, “May God raise a solid wall to keep the enemies from this house.”

The young boy was worried and asked, “But is that not asking for too much from God? Surely, it’s not right to pray for impossible things”

The old lady smiled and said, “Grandson, my prayer doesn’t mean that I am asking God to build a stone wall around our house. We must put our trust in God. He will protect us if we trust Him. He certainly is able to do so.”

When the enemy soldiers arrived they all came with the motive to destroy. They kept destroying each house that lay across their path. As they approached the devoted old lady’s house, suddenly they felt as though their hands became heavy and could not be lifted, let alone destroy the house. Seeing this, more soldiers joined in to attack the house but to their surprise, they too could not raise their hands! Finally, understanding that there was a supreme force much more powerful guarding the house, the attacking soldiers gave up. They fell on their knees, asked for forgiveness, and later even helped the villagers rebuild what they had destroyed.

Moral: Even though a situation may seem impossible to us, God is always with us and hears our prayers. He only asks that we put our faith and trust in Him and He will protect us.