What is child-like faith? What does it look like? What does the Lord mean when He says, “You can ask for anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13)? Does He actually mean that? Or is it more of a figurative thing? Why are we afraid of doing that? So quickly, we explain things away, like how it says in the word not to put the Lord your God to the test, etc. It sounds too simple, kind of child-like, to believe that you can ask your Father in heaven Who loves you for something. Why don’t we believe that He will heal your family member with cancer? Or that He will allow you to get pregnant when you are barren? Or that He will give you money for your next mortgage payment when you are broke? These are all things that have happened…I know the people that have received these things from Him. These are actual miracles that we quickly explain away with our faithless human explanations. Are you doing it right now? Thinking of all the counter-arguments? Is God not big enough, real enough, loving enough, caring enough, sovereign enough to you?
There are things that keep us from faith, from living a life of faith. And in this era of wi-fi, cell phones, Roombas, and lasers that will fix our eyes – we have so many of these things. For me, I had resigned myself to living life taking these pills everyday to manage the symptoms of this condition I had. I could just continue to take one a day and still die and go to heaven. But the Lord started poking my faith with this verse (actually, more like stabbing my faith) and He said, “OK Jane, do you believe? It’s time to walk on water.” To be honest, the first week or so was HELL. My skin was crawling, I was itchy, I had hives, it was hard to sleep. I just broke down and started bawling. And He kept asking me, “Do you believe?” My response was, “Yes”. So, I said, “OK, here Sean, hold onto my medicine.” I simply could not believe anymore that He wasn’t big enough to do this, so it was time to hold the Lord to His word and to get out of the boat and to start to walk on water, in faith. To be honest, I had pretty much made a comfy little bed in that boat of mine. And here, I write, with no explanation except that I asked for it in the name of Jesus, and He did it.
Writing this now sounds kind of redundant. I’ve written about this healing before. But God is bringing me down this road with Him, and its this road of faith. And all these things are just bubbling up. Like, how do you live life full of faith (or in other words, faithfully ). On the other hand, what does life without faith (or faithless living) look like? What does it mean to live, not believing what you see, but to believe in what you hope for, to believe what He has promised? The answer: it is pretty incredible and counter-intuitive. But it says clearly in the word that to be a person of faith means to be like a child. Radical faith is child-like faith and being a radical is, in essence, being a child. This faith thing and this gospel thing are seriously so much simpler than most of us think or want to believe! We talk about exegesis and theology, while God talks about just believing what He says. We ask, ‘OK then, how do I grow in faith?’ It says in 2 Peter, that He has given us everything we need. Lord, help us to see what You have already given us! Heal us of our faithlessness! He says in His word, “Have faith…you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. BUT you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart”. In Colossians, it says, “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught.”
I’ll leave you with this: there was a young woman that was teaching/preaching at Sunday School somewhere in California and this particular day, she was teaching these children about the kingdom of God. God then gave a vision to this 8-year-old girl and shows her that there is a body parts room in heaven. Ten minutes later, a man dying of intestinal cancer gets carried into the church and has heard that God is using these kids to bring healing. So, this little girl goes up to the man and says, “Hey mister, hi my name is Kayla, did you know there is a body parts room in heaven. What do you need? Intestine? I’m sure He’s got one of those. Let’s just pray…”She says, “Jesus we know You’ve got an extra intestine in heaven, please give this man one. Amen.” The guy felt something physically happen in his body and he was completely healed. They didn’t even know or ask if this man was a believer or not, or whatever. BUT, this little girl was simple and humble enough to believe.
SO, who wants to be a kid?
