Faith like a child is a phrase I have heard my whole life but never gave much thought to. I always knew that the Bible said that we need to have faith like a child, and I’ve heard songs that sing the same exact thing. Still, never did it fully register in my mind until this morning.
I was sitting on the couch in the living room of the house I have been staying in reading my bible, flipping through pages until a verse would pop out at me. My pages stopped flipping and I came across this verse.
Matthew 18:3-4 “Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
There it was again with that child-like faith topic that I didn’t understand.
For the longest time I had thought that having faith like a child meant I had to act like one. Never would I, an eighteen year old girl, understand what having faith like a child meant because I am simply not a child anymore.
However, today while sitting on this verse I had a realization thought come to my head.
About a year ago, I went bowling with my dad and my three brothers. Some good family friends, Meagan and Caleb joined us. Bowling is not any of our specialties, strikes were something that didn’t happen very often. However, my very smart younger brother Colton decided that he would test this child like faith ordeal and had our six (at the time five) year old brother, Jude, pray over his bowling ball before he went his turn. Colton got a strike. Again and again before his turn he would have Jude put his hands on the ball and pray that Colton would get a strike, and Colton kept getting strikes.
Sitting there I was thinking “yeah, right. Jude praying over the ball won’t get Colton strikes.” But obviously that is why Jude was the one praying and not me.
This little visual came to my head this morning after reading that verse.
It didn’t matter that Jude was praying over a bowling ball to knock down all the pins.
It didn’t matter what the topic of prayer was about, Jude took it seriously, and prayed with a serious and child-like faith heart.
To him there are no small prayers, because in his mind and in his heart, Jesus can do anything. There isn’t any doubt to his six year old brain that Jesus won’t fix. The answer to him is simple.
That’s when it hit me.
Having faith like a child doesn’t mean that I have to act like a child in order to understand. It means that I have to have the unwavering faith that Jesus can and will do all things.
As one gets older, doubt tends to get bigger.
So many other things come into play, our eyes are opened to the sin and joys of this world, to the hard questions that seem to not have the greatest answers.
We think we need big theological answers to prove that the Bible is real, and that everything in it actually happened.
No.
We just need to understand that Jesus is the answer.
It’s seriously that simple.
God said it. God did it. God created it.
Jesus came. Jesus died. Jesus rose again.
Our sins are forgiven, Jesus loves us no matter what we do, and through the power of prayer anything is possible.
I have challenged myself to stop trying to overthink and question these things because in that there is a faith that could possibly be wavered. A faith that is not child-like.
Once I have the mind that Jude has, the child-like faith thinking, my faith is completely unwavered. My thoughts are sure because of Him who loves me.
