Posted by Oracle C.T. Webb
March 10, 2013 -
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Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. – Matthew 18:3
Have you ever watched children play? Their smiles, energy and creativity can warm any heart and put a smile on even the grumpiest of faces. Children enjoy their surroundings. They laugh often. They dance, skip and hop often. They care less about what they don’t have and more about sharing what they do have. They tend to be fearless, grossly imaginative and often times forgiving. They trust others in a manner that is both refreshing and frightening. Still, God says that unless we become like children—trusting, lowly, loving and forgiving—it will be impossible for us to enter heaven at all! Now that’s a bold statement.
God wants us to trust Him to orchestrate and navigate our lives. He wants us to be lowly and careful not to function independently of Him. God wants us to be loving and forgiving of those around us—especially those who hurt us. If we refuse to love and forgive, God’s word says that we will not be forgiven.
Children are energetic and tend to the view the world with optimism and newness. Their imaginations and creativity exist beyond the norm or the ordinary. This is what God desires for us. He want us to approach life expecting the extraordinary. He wants us to live life in a state of anticipation and wonder. God wants us to believe and trust Him for the miraculous.
Children typically believe what they are told. If you tell a child that nothing is impossible, chances are they are going to believe you. This is how we need to be with God. When God says that we are more than conquerors, we need to believe Him. When He says that the power of life and death is seen by the words we let come out of our mouths, we must learn to take Him at His word. This type of faith, or child-like belief, is what God is after in each of us. We need to believe that God is who He says He is and that we are everything He says we can be! God is completely trust-worthy; people are not.
Jehovah’s Witnesses often depict children with Jesus in their pamphlets. They also subscribe to the belief, that unless we have the faith of children, the kingdom of heaven will not be accessible to believers.
We know that children aren’t perfect. They lack maturity. They often require guidance and instruction and they’re incapable of caring for themselves. I see a common theme emerging. Children are wholly dependent on parents and caregivers for every aspect of provision. This is what God desires for us—his people. He wants us to be wholly dependent upon Him for all of our needs, wants and desires. Doing so grows our faith, strengthens our relationship with God and develops intimacy.
©2010-2013 Oracle laretta Taylor Pam, Global Ecumenical Ministries Inc. and Universal Life Church Monastery of Massachusetts. All Rights Reserved
