Read Verses: Matthew 18:1-5
Key Verse: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus loves children. In fact, unless we approach God with childlike faith we'll miss a lot of what God is trying to do. Now to be sure, I am not talking about childishness, which amounts to immaturity...I am talking about the qualities of a child which we need to imitate. A young child is void of ambition, pride, and haughtiness and is therefore a good example for us. Children are characteristically humble and teachable. They aren’t prone to pride or hypocrisy. Humility is a virtue rewarded by God; as James says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” Children are always laughing, always skipping while holding their father's hand, always enjoying the company of the family...no worries, no cares.
Have you ever listened to the prayers of a child? They are sweet, innocent, thoughtful, pure, and tender. They are willing to pray about ANYTHING and are not held back by the idea that a prayer is “too small” or “too large”. They share what is on their heart, believe, and trust with everything in them. They believe that God hears them, loves them, and will answer them when they call on Him in prayer. They lift their hearts up to God without worrying about doubt or whether God is listening. They are content knowing that God has heard them.
What does it mean to be childlike? At its heart its all about trust. Trust that God is in control and that he cares about us. In Psalm 62:8 it says, "Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." The Bible is always tell us to fear not...because we can trust the Father. Now, don't do what many others do...I know how you think. I can't trust God will be there, because I doubt. My faith isn't strong. Yada yada yada. We all have problems trusting God; we all think if my faith isn't strong enough it will fail. The Fatherhood of God is something HE does, it has nothing to do with us. What child doubts the good will of their Father? It's not the child's faith that motivates their fathers...its the father's faithfulness. The child simply trusts because the Father has never let them down. Why do we somehow doubt the Fathers faithfulness because we might have a problem with our faith.
Children are also not in control of things, Kids trust that someone else is in control. It's hard for us to give up control of our life like children do. We have learned from growing up, that when things get out of control we get hurt, as well as people around us. So, to stop us from getting hurt, we try to control everything around us...our emotions, our environment, our spouses, our friends. We learn to manipulate the world around us to make it safer. Our safety and comfort is our only concern, who cares who gets hurt. But God doesn't want us to have that kind of control. We start trusting ourselves more than our God. God will in situations like that, try to remove the controls from our lives, He want us to allow Him to be in control. Can you give us control of your life to the Holy Spirit? Can we trust the Holy Spirit when we serve God in ministry. What are you scared of?
A child trusts...a child is not concerned about control...a child is not concerned about power. When we pray, do we pray from a position of power? In the garden Satan tried to trick Adam and Eve with power...you will be like God he said. Adam and Eve wanted that power...they wanted to be like God. In our lives, if you look at it, every sin is somehow designed to get us something God would give us if we waited. Sin is simply our attempt at being godlike, without waiting for God. How much do we really control? We aren't in charge of much, and whatever we are in charge of is an illusion.
One dessert father said this "Even if I achieve inner peace for a moment, I still have a deep sense of my inadequacy and wretchedness and I have to admin my incapacity to make my love greater...Left to myself, with my own strength, I have felt the painful reality that without God's help, we cannot even say "Abba, Father." There are moments when God makes us feel the extreme limits of our powerlessness; then and only then, do we understand our nothingness right down to the depths. For so many years I have fought against my powerlessness, my weakness. Often I have refused to admit it to myself, preferring to appear in public with a nice mask of self-assurance. It is pride which will not let us accept being inadequate. God has made me understand this little by little."
We spend our whole lives trying to get to a place of safety of our own making. We are blessed that we live in a society that affords us that luxury. Look around the world, there is very little safety anywhere. But we can achieve it here...or so we think. Our society is really designed to get us to grow up quicker and lose that childishness. We all want to be self-made. To trust number one, to be in charge of our destiny, to rise up and achieve. But when we bring those qualities into our walk with God, we find ourselves unable to communicate with the Father. We cannot be his equal, we will always be his creation. We need to come to him as children and put our hand in His...lead us Father into truth and life. Can you trust the Father to lead you into His life?
Lord Jesus, we come to you with empty hands. Teach us to have childlike trust and to pour our hearts out before you. We live as men and women in this world, but we need to come to you in childlike faith, give us this ability. We want all our successes to be your successes, all of our fear to be submitted to you, all of our hopes to be in you. Teach us how to let go of our need for control and to let the Holy Spirit lead us day by day. We are inadequate until we are transformed into the likeness of your Son. Fill us Holy Spirit, fill us. In the name of Jesus we pray, AMEN.
Key Verse: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus loves children. In fact, unless we approach God with childlike faith we'll miss a lot of what God is trying to do. Now to be sure, I am not talking about childishness, which amounts to immaturity...I am talking about the qualities of a child which we need to imitate. A young child is void of ambition, pride, and haughtiness and is therefore a good example for us. Children are characteristically humble and teachable. They aren’t prone to pride or hypocrisy. Humility is a virtue rewarded by God; as James says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” Children are always laughing, always skipping while holding their father's hand, always enjoying the company of the family...no worries, no cares.
Have you ever listened to the prayers of a child? They are sweet, innocent, thoughtful, pure, and tender. They are willing to pray about ANYTHING and are not held back by the idea that a prayer is “too small” or “too large”. They share what is on their heart, believe, and trust with everything in them. They believe that God hears them, loves them, and will answer them when they call on Him in prayer. They lift their hearts up to God without worrying about doubt or whether God is listening. They are content knowing that God has heard them.
What does it mean to be childlike? At its heart its all about trust. Trust that God is in control and that he cares about us. In Psalm 62:8 it says, "Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." The Bible is always tell us to fear not...because we can trust the Father. Now, don't do what many others do...I know how you think. I can't trust God will be there, because I doubt. My faith isn't strong. Yada yada yada. We all have problems trusting God; we all think if my faith isn't strong enough it will fail. The Fatherhood of God is something HE does, it has nothing to do with us. What child doubts the good will of their Father? It's not the child's faith that motivates their fathers...its the father's faithfulness. The child simply trusts because the Father has never let them down. Why do we somehow doubt the Fathers faithfulness because we might have a problem with our faith.
Children are also not in control of things, Kids trust that someone else is in control. It's hard for us to give up control of our life like children do. We have learned from growing up, that when things get out of control we get hurt, as well as people around us. So, to stop us from getting hurt, we try to control everything around us...our emotions, our environment, our spouses, our friends. We learn to manipulate the world around us to make it safer. Our safety and comfort is our only concern, who cares who gets hurt. But God doesn't want us to have that kind of control. We start trusting ourselves more than our God. God will in situations like that, try to remove the controls from our lives, He want us to allow Him to be in control. Can you give us control of your life to the Holy Spirit? Can we trust the Holy Spirit when we serve God in ministry. What are you scared of?
A child trusts...a child is not concerned about control...a child is not concerned about power. When we pray, do we pray from a position of power? In the garden Satan tried to trick Adam and Eve with power...you will be like God he said. Adam and Eve wanted that power...they wanted to be like God. In our lives, if you look at it, every sin is somehow designed to get us something God would give us if we waited. Sin is simply our attempt at being godlike, without waiting for God. How much do we really control? We aren't in charge of much, and whatever we are in charge of is an illusion.
One dessert father said this "Even if I achieve inner peace for a moment, I still have a deep sense of my inadequacy and wretchedness and I have to admin my incapacity to make my love greater...Left to myself, with my own strength, I have felt the painful reality that without God's help, we cannot even say "Abba, Father." There are moments when God makes us feel the extreme limits of our powerlessness; then and only then, do we understand our nothingness right down to the depths. For so many years I have fought against my powerlessness, my weakness. Often I have refused to admit it to myself, preferring to appear in public with a nice mask of self-assurance. It is pride which will not let us accept being inadequate. God has made me understand this little by little."
We spend our whole lives trying to get to a place of safety of our own making. We are blessed that we live in a society that affords us that luxury. Look around the world, there is very little safety anywhere. But we can achieve it here...or so we think. Our society is really designed to get us to grow up quicker and lose that childishness. We all want to be self-made. To trust number one, to be in charge of our destiny, to rise up and achieve. But when we bring those qualities into our walk with God, we find ourselves unable to communicate with the Father. We cannot be his equal, we will always be his creation. We need to come to him as children and put our hand in His...lead us Father into truth and life. Can you trust the Father to lead you into His life?
Lord Jesus, we come to you with empty hands. Teach us to have childlike trust and to pour our hearts out before you. We live as men and women in this world, but we need to come to you in childlike faith, give us this ability. We want all our successes to be your successes, all of our fear to be submitted to you, all of our hopes to be in you. Teach us how to let go of our need for control and to let the Holy Spirit lead us day by day. We are inadequate until we are transformed into the likeness of your Son. Fill us Holy Spirit, fill us. In the name of Jesus we pray, AMEN.
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