Child Like Believing

Psalms
{138:1} I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
{138:2} I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
{138:3} In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, [and] strengthenedst me [with] strength in my soul.
{138:4} All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.
{138:5} Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great [is] the glory of the LORD.
{138:6} Though the LORD [be] high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.
{138:7} Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
{138:8} The LORD will perfect [that which] concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, [endureth] for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

**

Praise God's name for his lovingkindness, for his truth.

'In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, [and] strengthenedst me [with] strength in my soul.'

Strengthening with strength in the soul.

Strength in the soul.

Most times isn't that where we need strength, in our soul more so that any other way.

Hope gives us soul strength. Hope gives our will a chance to carry on when all seems lost. When there is so much heartache and pain in our lives we can find the will to carry on. Strength in our souls.

'Though the LORD [be] high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.'

Respect to the lowly.

The proud he knows far off.

God knows. He does. God loves us and He will guide us.

**

Yesterday as I was studying some it hit me once again how far from being 'Christ-like' I am. We're to strive to walk the walk in Christ, we can't say that once we accept Jesus that's it, we can be as bad as we like because we're not saved by works. That's not how it all goes.

For many, many, many years before Christ, God guided his chosen people and many times they broke the covenant they made with Him. They'd repent and He'd take them back and it would start all over again. God is a forgiving God. During that time there were many punishments for the breaking of the covenant as well.

Christ came and revealed the law more fully. The law pointing to Christ's saving grace was realized in Christ. Through Christ we are saved and no other. Out of that saving grace we are to follow Christ's ways. We are to love God and to love man, so often we love ourselves more than either of them. Selfishness being totally against all that is God.

I grew up with two older sisters and one older brother, I was the fourth child. I'm not making excuses for who I am, I'm sure there are many that grow up the same. Growing up with the expectation of wanting to be special.

Wanting and never seeming to attain anything special in a good way within myself. I could focus on the bad in my life, I could see how plainly I was 'bad' and it only made me want to be something, someone different.

I can honestly say that it's part of me still and it's that part that I look at and need to get rid of, or need to give to God and have Him get rid of, I'm not sure how it all works.

Yesterday as I studied I realized how alive and well that desire to be 'special' is in me and how contrary it is to being 'the least', to being 'lowly', to being a 'servant', to putting others 'first', to being 'last'.

In making the realization part of me started to feel that old despair that tells me I'll never be right with God. Clinging to Jesus I know my hope has to be in Him and Him only, not me. And I started to think about this verse--

Matthew {18:3} 'And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'

The thing about children is their ability to trust. Little children, not big children, but little children had that innocence about them a sweet innocence that life beats at as they age and the distrusting begins. A little child doesn't know how to worry. Worry is another thing growing older gives to us.

We can watch little children at play and while they can be selfish in the sense they want 'that toy', they can also be very giving, very loving, very trusting, and they don't worry.

'Except ye be converted, and become as little children,'

Become as little children.

It's only with that complete trust in Jesus, that child-like trust, that inability to worry that we can get into heaven. Why is that?

Heaven isn't going to be a happy place for those who find happiness in worrying and distrust.

As a child trust its parents, we have to trust God.

We can't pick apart God, we can't be rebelling older children, we can't be obnoxious teenagers and we certainly can't be jaded, cynical adults and hope to be happy. The older we get the more we question authority, the more we form our 'own' opinions and take stances that please us and our senses of right/wrong, regardless of what others think. We become very opinionated, we take great pride in our beliefs. Pride in being the 'adults' we've become.

While we bask in that pride, or lament our inability to be able to take that pride in ourselves, we miss the whole point of being like children.

A child's trust. A child's inability to worry.

We have to tap into that child-like part of us.

Ha! I sound like a psychologist- tap into your inner child. But you know it's true. Christ said it Himself.

'Except ye be converted, and become as little children,'

How is that possible? Only through Christ. Only through really accepting the fact that He and He alone can save us. Believing in it with a child-like trust that doesn't question it, that doesn't worry over it, but believes.

I'm tempted to say as a child believes in fairy tales, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and you know I think that might be true.

A child doesn't question their reality why should they, they've seen what Santa and the Easter Bunny brings, they see a rainbow and a fairy tales tells them there is gold at the end, they believe, really believe and adults nod and smile at the happiness the deception brings to them in their innocence. We have to believe contrary to what our senses tell us about our unworthiness. We have to be child-like in our belief, our trust.

Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.

And we have to believe in Him beyond doubt.

Hebrews {11:6} 'But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him:] for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.'

Faith, trust, hope. Child like believing. Child like love. May God help us all as we each struggle in our own ways to find the child we need to become so we can enter the kingdom of heaven with Jesus when He returns to take us home with Him. In His name.

Amen.