Simple Faith, A Child’s Faith

Luke 18:15-17 (ESV)

¹⁵ Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they ^rebuked them. ¹⁶ But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ¹⁷ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

A child does not know much, and more importantly, they cannot do much on their own. Let a child by themselves for just a few minutes and terror is sure to strike! They are dependant on their parents for everything: food, clothes, a roof over their head, toys, going to school, and just about anything else you can think of that requires supervision, or guidance, of any kind. This is the kind of faith, the kind of person, that will enter the Kingdom of God. True faith requires of the believer complete dependence on God to provide; everything. Just as a small child depends on their parents, we are to depend on GOD. Doing anything else will only cause problems.

I just recently over heard a tutor teaching their pupil in one of our local Borders Book Stores say it this way (in the context of math), “If you do this my way, you will not make any mistakes. But, if you do it your way, I guarantee you will make mistakes.”

I experienced this lesson in my own life in the last four months. From January through the beginning of March I was unemployed. By my own free will, mind you, but unemployed non the less. During that period of time my wife and I were forced to dip into our savings account in order to keep up with the bills that come with, well, growing up. Our only source of income during this time was from the small number of houses my wife cleaned several times a month. It helped, but was not enough to keep us from depleting our savings. Scary, right?

Wrong. Not at all.

We knew that if we were to go through that period of very limited income with our sanity and love for each other still intact, we would have to rely 110 percent on God to provide for us. We could not do that by ourselves, and we knew that deep down, so we literally entrusted everything to God and did not worry about it. We met with him daily through prayer and His Word and did not do much of anything before passing it by Him first. We knew that in His perfect timing He would provide us with jobs and the right amount of income to meet our every need.

During that time I experienced a faith in God that I never had felt before. I never trusted God with everything! I’m sure some people looked at our situation and thought we were lunatics for not taking jobs at any place that would hire us, but we were doing things according to the guidance of His hands. We were like children, 100 percent dependant on Him, not ourselves and our own abilities. Our faith was never stronger, never so real.

Because of that, I know now that that time of no income was entirely of God. He knew what he had to do in order to get us to trust in Him, and he did it without thinking twice. Because God knows best.

Do things His way.

Pray. Follow. Live. Lead.