Childlike Faith

I have spent the evening with the beautiful baby daughter of two of my close friends.

 

Whenever I spend time with my friends' babies, I am reminded of how completely dependent on their parents babies are.  And of how utterly helpless they are by themselves.

 

Babies rely on their parents for food, for milk, for winding them, for changing their nappies, for attention.  They rely on them for everything.  

 

And there is a simple trust between babies and their parents.

 

Babies know that when they cry, someone - usually Mum or Dad - will attend to their needs.  Someone will come to help them and rescue them and give them whatever they need.

 

In the same way, the Bible tells us that God will always answer our cries for help and will attend to our needs; He is our Heavenly Father:

 

        "I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
        he heard my cry for mercy."

 

        [Psalm 116:1 NIV]

 

However, although I know this verse and others which talk about God's provision and His parental care for us, I am aware that I often don't believe this is what He is like.

 

I don't have that simple childlike, or babylike faith which believes that Daddy God will provide all that I need.  There is something in my heart which doubts His goodness, which doubts His kindness and His ability to provide.  Perhaps this is the result of disappointed hopes and dashed dreams in the past - things which have stripped away that childlike simplicity.

 

But I want to return to that childlike faith. 

 

“I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom."

 

[Matthew 18:3-4 MSG] 

 

I want to have a simple and elemental faith again.  I want to be childlike again.