Childlike Faith

What does it mean to have a childlike faith? Working with and around kids for nearly 10 years has helped me gain a better understanding of what that means.

In Mark 10:13-16 Jesus speaks about the children like this:

While thinking through childlike faith I’ve come up with 3 characteristics that we ought to have as Christians. 

 The first thing that came to mind when thinking about childlike faith was curiosity. Has a kid ever asked you a question that starts out simple but after you answer they continue to ask ‘Why?’ Over and over and over and over again? You quickly get annoyed at the child, while realising you’re not actually as smart as you thought you were and now you need to go do some research on everything there is to know in the whole world.

In all seriousness, children’s curiosity and imagination is something I long for. I wish I could go back in time when the Bible stories I heard at church were so mesmerising and full of life and colour. What would our relationship with God look like if we looked at the Bible through the lens of a child? What would our quiet time look like if instead of reading for 10 minutes and skimming over the passage because we’re already familiar with it, we started asking God ‘Why?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Why?’.  What if we wandered into unfamiliar parts of the Bible. The parts we often don’t think about because they seem insignificant. 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting and training in righteousness.” The Bible has the answer to everything. Are you looking? Are you asking God to reveal it to you?

The second thing that came to mind was honesty. Have you ever had a child be brutally honest with you? The answer is probably yes. While working with a group of 10-11 year olds at my home church I briefly mentioned to the girls in the group I was thinking of cutting my hair (after two years of growing it out). They all immediately started arguing with me and begging me NOT to cut my hair. Ouch. That was not the response I was expecting. I thought if I showed them a picture of my hair previously cut they would reconsider, apologise and tell how wonderful it would look. Upon showing them this photo they continued to argue even more now that I should definitely not cut my hair. Ouch again.

Kids are just honest (about most things) to a fault. They tend to say exactly what they are thinking. And I began to wonder, what would our relationship with Jesus look like if we were brutally honest with Him about everything? What if we said whatever we were really thinking to Jesus? What if we didn’t try to clean ourselves up before coming to Him? I don't know about you but that sounds really freeing. When kids do something wrong and lie about it we typically get into a very long discussion about lying. Why it's bad, and why we need to be honest about everything. I remember my parents telling me that it's okay to tell them about a lie, that they love me despite the sin and that there is always forgiveness. Do we say the same thing about ourselves? Do we truly believe in Christ's ultimate forgiveness of our sins?

The third and final thing to note is trust. As a kid (and still now) I trusted my father with everything in me. As a kid my father was the strongest man to ever exist. He could lift me up by my ears, he could pull me and my siblings around the room on a sleeping bag (or magic carpet ride) with his bare hands. My father was also the smartest man in the whole wide world. He knew the answer to everything I ever asked and he could do all sorts of awesome things. And as amazing as he is, my father also gave me lots of rules as a kid. Like not running into the street. Or no swimming without a life jacket. At the time that felt rude and hateful to me. Why would he say that? He was taking all the fun out of my life!  Why should I get disciplined for doing the fun things I wanted to do? But because I trusted my dad, I listened and obeyed (most of the time). 

Looking back as an adult it is quite obvious to see why my dad put the rules into place. All of those things have a danger to them that, at the time I could not see. The Lord is our Heavenly Father, and whether we like it or not He has given us rules. Like a child, we sometimes don’t see the reason but I know it will become clear someday. We will look back and see how God's rules saved us. I think God tells us to have childlike faith because if we're being honest, we all act like children. 

The Bible talks about how God is our “Heavenly Father”. He is all of the things I see in my dad but 10,000x greater. I trust my Father in heaven and know the plans He has for me are greater than any I could come up with. In Matthew 6:26 it says;

Childlike faith is trusting in your Heavenly Father wholeheartedly, it's believing even when you don’t see, it's being completely open and honest with him. 

I hope everyday the Lord will strengthen the childlike spirit within all of us.