If there is anything I could say about our walk with God that pertains to every single person, it's that no matter who you are or what you have been through, He desires for you to just trust and rely on Him to meet your needs. And if I could say there is anything that we tend to forget the longer we walk with God, it's that He cares about our every need and wants us to rely on Him for everything. We should never grow out of that! 1 Peter 5:6-7 tells us "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you", and in Matthew 18:3 Jesus said "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven". Why do I put these 2 verses together....because today God was talking to me about what it really means to "humble ourselves before Him" and to have a "childlike faith". And they go hand in hand.
Think about your own children, or your friends kids or even kids you have seen when you're out in public. What do we tend to say makes one child better behaved than another child? Their respect for and ability to listen to their parents, other adults and authority figures in their life. And how would we describe a child that behaves badly? By how much they talk back or how much they refuse to listen the authority figure talking to them. We have all seen the child that "no" is their favorite word or the parent who has to explain "why" to everything they "ask" their child to do...or even worse, the child that will just pitch a fit about anything that is asked of them, no matter where they are. And today God was saying to me, "I have to deal with so many Christians that act just like this. I can't get them to respect me, trust me, listen to me or follow my will for them because I can't get them to humble themselves enough to actually think I know more about their life then they do. And without getting them to humble themselves before me I will never get them to have childlike faith toward me".
Ultimately we have to humble ourselves before God if we want to give Him authority over our lives. It's our acknowledgement that His ways are far better than ours and we NEED Him in our life...not just as a part of it, but for our life to be consumed by Him. But humbling ourselves is only the first part, the second is the faith that He desires us to have in Him. Several places in the bible Jesus talked about how we should have faith like a child, but today God really began to show me exactly what that should look like. Taking me back to even my own childhood and saying, "what did you worry about as a child? Did you sit around as a child and wonder if your parents were going to make this months house payment? Did you worry about if there would be money for groceries? Did you worry about IF there would be meals fed to you today? Or if you turn the faucet would water come out because the bill got paid?" And to all of these things I said "no, I just knew they were being taken care of for me", and God said "Exactly! This is a childlike faith". As a child I did the things I knew I was supposed to (having to be told some times of course..haha), but I did the things needed of me and I did not worry about if my father (and mother) were going to take care of me, I just trusted they would. This is the place we need to be at with our heavenly father. We need to do what is required of us and know that He is taking care of us. But like the misbehaving child, we can't refuse and expect. It just doesn't work that way. This is where the humbleness and the childlike faith come together. We have to say to God that we humbly submit to His ways and then we trust Him to take care of our needs.
As a child you we were taught to submit to, obey and rely on our parents. This was by God's design because as adults He desires that same relationship with us. Our parents loved us and took care of us, and that doesn't even compare to the love that God has for us and the way He wants to take care of us. So ask yourself today, have I submitted to Him the way HE would like me to, and do I fully trust Him as much as HE would like me to?
God, thank You that You are trustworthy and faithful. Holy Spirit soften any hardness that may be in our hearts that prevent us for submitting to and fully trusting God. Help us to be like little children looking up to our big strong daddy to take care of us. In Jesus name, Amen
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