Just as I was becoming more desperately praying for someone to take on my "offer" to lead worship in my stead tomorrow night, an answer came in the form of a text message. Ross, one of the members of the Worship Creative Planning Team said he's coming to the rehearsals this afternoon (which he did), and in effect saying he is willing to take the lead tomorrow night as I go to my old friend's wedding.
At around 2PM, I was at the fellowship hall sitting in on a seminar on Love, Sex and Lasting Relationships when my drummer called in to say that he won't make it to rehearsals for some work-related issue that required his attention. My first recourse was to whisper a prayer that the Lord will provide me with a drummer. The answer to my prayer was sitting right across the room from where I was! I asked if he could play. Immediately, he agreed to! Isn't God amazing?
I spent three years in Bible college, and another in graduate school learning loads and loads of theologcal, philosophical and Biblical studies which kind of fried my brains in the process. Over the last several months, I've been asking the Lord to redevelop in me a child-like faith! That's what Christ in the Bible teaches us to have in receiving God's kingdom. Simple answers to prayers are God's way of doing that.
I believe there are three characteristics of children that Jesus desires in us. Think of four to six-year-old children. What are they like?
First, children are straightforward. Children say whatever comes into their minds. They are not worried about social convention, what others will think, or about what every one else is doing. They are not self-conscious. They say what they think.
Second, children are trusting. That is, they believe that others are straightforward. They tend to believe what others tell them. My 3-year old nephew, Jacob loves it when I throw him up in the air and catch him again. He never refuses an offer for me to do that to him. Once I set him on a ledge and asked him to jump off. He did, believing that his uncle Jon will not allow him to fall and get hurt.
God in His great mercy provides us evidence that He is indeed trustworthy – and so we are to believe Him in that simple, trusting manner of a child.
Third, children have a sense of wonder at the world. One Christmas when my niece Hannah was four, we were walking around the hotel lobby when we stopped to admire a genuine ginger bread house, large enough for an adult to enter in, decorated with loads of candies. Hannah took one look, and was overwhelmed, saying, "Oh, that house is so fascinating." First off, I never thought she'd know the word invigorating, second, I never really thought of the gingerbread house as invigorating as it was yummy. To children, the world is full of surprises, full of things that they don’t understand. They know that they don’t understand everything, so they are frequently lost in wonder.
How do these characteristics apply to the way we receive the kingdom?
Start with wonder: We need to be overwhelmed with the wonder of His love and power. "He created this world around us! He can do anything! And He came for me! He loves me!"
Second, we need to be straightforward with regard to our sinfulness, as the kids on stage were this morning when I asked them.
Third, we need to trust in Jesus, believe Him with the simple faith of a child, knowing He is so far above us that we will never understand Him – but we can trust Him.
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My personal reflection on Childlike Faith, message © 2000, Thos. C. Pinckney
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