Child-like faith

Matthew 18:3-4

And He said, “Truly I say to you unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is for people who humble themselves and become like children. But what does it actually mean to become like a child? How do I have child-like faith?

I came into this trip with a lot of doubts. Right away from training camp, I saw how my team was very Spirit lead. The very first question that was asked of me was ¨what are your spiritual gifts? ¨ I had no idea. I always knew that the Holy Spirit was in my life, but I hadn´t known what it meant to be led by Him every day. At first, I thought God was silent in my life. But that has definitely changed on this trip. I have seen Him move and answer prayers in awesome ways through healings, visions, and changed hearts. I have been recognizing the gifts He has given me to glorify His name.

But God has told us that our spiritual gifts are useless if we don’t have love. And even better than spiritual gifts is being in the presence of God and worshiping Him even when life doesn’t go our way. Jesus even said that if we don’t have a child-like faith that trusts Him, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven!

I have been able to see a glimpse of what it means to have a child-like faith with Peter and his son Christopher at the garbage dump for the past couple months. As I have gotten to know both of them over the course of this trip, I have seen the love that Peter has for his son. Christopher just wanted to be in his dad’s presence because his dad was the only one he could trust. Christopher just wanted to be held. And he made it so easy to receive his dad’s love. This is what our heavenly Father wants.

Child-like faith is trusting that our father will be there for us no matter the circumstance. Many times in the past, I doubted God’s presence in my life, and sometimes, I even doubted His existence. As I was spending time with Him this week, God lead me to Psalm 46:10- “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

I’ve learned on this trip that even through my doubts, I just need to rest in His presence and know that He is a good God that can take complete care of me. I have seen the things in my life that aren’t from God like timidity, pride, and complacency. All of these characteristics show the distrust I can have in my perfect heavenly Father. How is it that a little boy can receive love so well from a human father in the middle of a garbage dump, yet I can’t trust a perfect, all-knowing Father that wants the absolute best for me? God just wants our presence. There is literally nothing that we can do to earn this love; we just have to be willing to accept it.