Small children know the secret of trust. They may not know what trust is, but they practice it, anyway.
They have no choice, if they are to survive.
Jesus tells us to be as small children, to have that blind love for him, but most importantly, to have that childlike faith in him. What he is really telling us is that we must trust in only him, for when we step into our own strength, we step into weakness, and we will eventually fail.
The prophet Jeremiah reveals God’s stand on this to us in Jeremiah 17:5. Jeremiah minces no words when he flings the judgment of the Lord at the people of Judah.
“Cursed be the man who trusts in his own flesh, letting his heart depart from the Lord.”
At the time Israel was in the process of doing exactly that. The Egyptians were the powerhouse of the day, and Judah lived in fear of the slightly less powerful Chaldeans. Rather than turn to God, her strength and her fortress, Judah was ready to turn to her own flesh, trusting in her political alliances, rather than putting her footing on the bedrock of the God of All Creation.
It is easy for us to shake our heads at Judah’s foolishness, but how often do we do the same thing? God wishes us to step out on faith for him, and we cling to what we know, refusing to take that new job. Or perhaps it’s a calling in a distant land, a new mission field where God needs us to be. Closer to home, we are afraid to host a Bible study in the comfort of our own home, because we don’t think we have the ability.
All we have to do is have the faith of a child. If we trust in only him, we can do all these things and more.
There is no limit to what we can do with Christ, but without him, we cannot survive what the devil will bring against us.
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