Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Faith of a Child > Mustard Seed

One of our friends and youth ministry members was taken to the hospital with heart trouble. They even had to jump start him twice through it all. He has a stent in now and is doing far better.

While talking with my daughter, Meghan, about this, because we were possibly going to visit him and his wife, she declared in no uncertain terms and tone that she wanted to go too and read him her very favorite book, a book of family pictures, because that will help him get better.

Knowing him, he would certainly get a very heart-touched (pun intended) smile, and it just may work. The faith of a child is what God wants consistently from us yet we have so much difficulty allowing ourselves to give Him that much.

The simple faith of a child, trusting so easily and fully that God will do what He promises, seems so far out of reach many times. Why? Because we are sinful creatures and stupidly give Satan just enough leeway to be able to hear the lies he spews forth to cause us to doubt our ALMIGHTY GOD!! And we then continue to sin by justifying our doubt as "being realistic" or "that's just not the way God works" or "God's not going to do that for me" or even the very selfish prideful line of "God could never use someone like me".

Now granted, there is some truth to the study of our God and how He works. Yet we hold that "the Lord works in strange and mysterious ways." Let's face it, God is not a genie to cater to our whims, no matter how noble they are. But I believe we are causing Him to hold back so many wonders, miracles, and blessings because of our doubt.

Possibly the greatest Biblical example of this that comes to my mind is the feeding of the 5000. Remember that was just the men that were counted, no doubt there were some women and children too so we're talking anywhere from 5000-20,000 people that day.

I can just see the Lord Jesus Christ look down at the little boy, smile and wink as he whispers to him, "Watch this!!" That boy had faith in Jesus' ability to use what seemingly insignificant bit of food he could give to help a great many people.

The grown, mature, "smart" disciples for the most part didn't even so much as ask Jesus what HE could do to feed them. No. They panicked and were asking what THEY could do and where THEY would get enough food. Surely they were just being realistic.

Child-like faith in our LORD JESUS CHRIST takes a few dinner rolls and a couple of sardines, and completely feeds an entire town full of people......til they were full no less, and even has an abundance of blessing.

We could move mountains if we had faith as big as a mustard seed. When you stop to think about it the truth is, the faith of a child is even greater than a mustard seed.

What else do our children remind us about?