How To Renew Your Faith
He called a little child to him and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-4)
In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life and ministry, he tells this simple yet impactful story of Jesus talking about childlike faith. He uses the child as an illustration of trust and humility, which were qualities the Pharisees seemed to struggle to muster up.
Think about when you first accepted Christ. Most likely at the very beginning, you had a childlike faith. You may have actually been a child when you accepted Christ. But even if you weren’t and you accepted Christ later in life, you were still so heavily reliant on your Heavenly Father because following Jesus was so new to you. You had a wonder about you when it came to your faith, an excitement surrounding the time you spent with God.
But over time, we unfortunately begin to believe that there are certain aspects of life we can handle on our own. We start behaving more like teenagers than little children, thinking we have all the answers and don’t need anyone’s help. We say to God, “I’ve got this,” when it comes to things we think we can control, and rely too much on ourselves and not enough on Him. This is a dangerous place to be, because it is with this heart attitude that we being to idolize ourselves, our plans, and our hopes, instead of surrendering those things to the Lord.
God wants you to take the posture of a child when it comes to your relationship with Him. He wants you to find it easy to believe Him and easy to trust Him. He wants you to realize how much you need Him. He wants you to expect provision, protection, and support from Him instead of trying to find those things within yourself. He wants to take care of you, His child, so why not humbly come to Him, your Father in Heaven, with a renewed childlike faith?