Dream's Awakening

There were two children with their mother, they were speaking to each other in French. I couldn't understand a word they were saying. However, I gathered that they were asking their mom for some kind of pastries behind the glass. Funny how things work, but sitting there I finally understood this verse in a way I had not before:

Luke 18:15-17 (New International Version)

15People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

So ask yourself this, what makes a child innocent in our eyes? Have you ever though about this? Is it their perfect sense of morals? Is it their finely tuned benevolence towards their fellow man? If you have ever been around a bunch of 1-2 year olds, your answer would likely be: no and no. I've found they're rebellious little people , for the most part. They can also be quite selfish. That really doesn't sound too innocent, does it? Don't get me wrong , I love kids. They definitely do have a certain beautiful innocence about them. So what is it? Seeing those kids , I realized that this innocence was not based on their lack of "sin", rather, their innocence was based on their complete and total belief. Innocent Faith.

The kids fully believed their mom was going to get them the promised pastries. There was no question in their mind. Sadly, as those kids grow up, they will probably be lied to, betrayed, fooled, ridiculed, and rejected by other people. Most of us have experienced this. As life progresses, we are constantly prodded to never trust people the same way we did as a child, like those French kids trusted their mother for a blueberry muffin on that sunny summer day.

I won't pretend to understand everything Jesus meant in this passage, but I understood that he is asking us to approach him with a kind of un-corrupted faith. He is calling for our faith be as a child's, pure and innocent.

So, how do we do that? For a lot of Christians, including myself, our faith gets a beating from somewhere or another on the daily. It makes us stronger, or tears us down. I really only have a couple of suggestions regarding the building up of our child-like faith. They are far from being exhaustive, but they have worked in my life and are evident in scriptures.

Romans 10:14-17 (New International Version)

14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"^[a] 16But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"^[b] 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

(Although the meaning of this passage doesn't directly equalize the message with the Holy Bible, we can say that the message of Christ is fully laid out in the Holy Bible. I don't want to make the bible say something it doesn't. Regardless, I'll get to my point.) Reading the word daily. In my experience, this is one of the best things you can do to strengthen your faith. I have been doing this consistently for about the last 6 or so months. Before that it was twice a week at best for a while. I'll be very honest with you, I've always had a hard time with this discipline since I've been a christian. I had the tendency to be disciplined for a couple of weeks or months, and then quickly loose my consistency. However, thanks be to God, for now I have had a firm grip on this and it has literally reshaped my life in a way I didn't think possible. There truly is life and faith in the word of God.

Finally, something so simple yet so critical. As people who follow Christ, we must forgive all of the past hurts that have been unmercifully flung to us by our own family, friends, fellow Christians, churches, pastors, and even ourselves because of our own sin. Unforgiveness and the resulting bitterness is like battery acid on our hearts and a severe beating to our faith in God. Most of the time we just try to simply forget about our hurts, but we must forgive as God has called us to do.

Well, that's all I have on my heart for now. Thank you so much for reading this. I hope it encouraged you as you seek Christ and His kingdom. Do you have any thoughts or comments on the above? Please feel free to post a comment and I'd love to discuss it with you in the comment section below.

Love ya'll,

David