This past week, I helped out with the kindergarten class at vacation bible school. During this week, I was able to examine what God was laying heavily on my heart. I felt as if God was telling me to write about childlike faith. So what did I do this week? I took some time to dig into the Word to study how God calls us to have faith like a child.
During this week, I caught myself in awe as I watched these precious children worship our Lord and Savior by singing and dancing. Hearing these little voices praise our big God was so humbling. I loved listening to each child talk about how much Jesus loves and cares for them. It amazes me that these children who are so small and young can fathom Jesus' endless love for them. Even though I was one of their teachers for vacation bible school, I think they taught me more about my faith than I taught them about theirs.
Teachable, dependent, obedient, trusting, humble and innocent. These are some of the adjectives that I would say a child possesses. These adjectives are also what we, as followers of Christ, should strive to possess. We should come to the Father like a child. We are called to fully submit ourselves to Him. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." In that verse, Paul tells us how he submitted himself to the Lord, and we must do the same.
Like a child trusts and depends upon their parents, we must trust and depend on Jesus. In Matthew 18:3 Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." We are required to be completely dependent upon Jesus in order to enter His kingdom. This means we must totally surrender our lives to Jesus in order for Him to live through us.
We must humble ourselves before the Lord and recognize that salvation is a gift. We cannot earn salvation. Jesus died for our sins in order for you and me to have eternal life. We have done nothing to make ourselves worthy of forgiveness. We do not deserve this gift of grace, but it was given to us. Matthew 18:4 says, "Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." In this passage, Jesus corrects people by telling them to be humble like a child. He points out how important humility is to become one of His followers.
Today, I encourage you to examine your heart and find how Jesus is calling you to be teachable, dependent, obedient, trusting, humble and innocent.
"As newborn babes, long for pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow toward salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." Peter 2:2-3
