This past month God has been continually teaching me to trust him. Starting a new job, trying to evaluate my purpose in the future, and making sure I’m just generally on the right track is becoming a beast in my life. During the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting at my church God keeps telling me to look at him and trust in his great love. Over and over again, everything I read in my bible points back to the love God has. None of us are perfect and we make terrible mistakes, but God still chose to save us. God sent his son for you and me, paying the price so that we could have a chance. That’s a crazy kind of love, and that kind of love shows me that I can trust God. No matter how much I can’t see or how much I don’t know, God simply calls me his son, and he wants me to have childlike faith. We all need to press into a childlike faith.

I love this account of Jesus in the New Testament. Matthew 19:13-15 says, “Some people brought little children to Jesus. They wanted him to place his hands on the children and pray for them. But the disciples told them not to do it. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t keep them away. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like them.” Jesus placed his hands on them to bless them. Then he went on from there.”

I am a tad bit biased since I work in next gen ministry and have a heart for youth, but I just love the truth Jesus proclaims. Jesus says that heaven belongs to people like them, people with a great faith, one that isn’t cynical or hardened, which let’s just face it, tends to happen to adults these days. When reading this it made me think about a memory. When I’m not working at Daystar Church, I work in an afterschool program at the Greensboro Montessori school. I typically work with junior highers, but one afternoon I stepped in to help the primary class. I’m a fan of saying yes to fun (this is a great skill to learn, and yes, I’m talking to you mister serious pants), so one girl asked me to play with them. I said yes and we walked over to the fun. She said that they were playing house, and that I was to be the dad with each of them being my children, oh and also, we were all mermaids. They asked me what job I had, and naturally I was a seahorse tamer, having to earn money to provide our food of water crystals, being a single mermaid parent can be rough. My favorite part was when my boss came by to check on the team and I didn’t break character. The reason I look at this and smile, is because this is what Jesus was meaning. These kids believed in their play, this was real to them, and they committed fully to this story. They didn’t have to fear about what people would think, because they were all committed. I like this picture, because Jesus wants us to have faith like a child in him, and the best part, he is the realest thing there is.

Run to Jesus.

I have this picture of the children seeing Jesus, and their parents telling them to go meet him, and they run. I picture them running, not looking back nor walking, but full on sprinting with smiles on their faces towards Jesus. We need to do this in our lives. During the hard days, run. During the seasons of loss, run. In the midst of the battle you face, run. In the good times, run. When you just got that thing, you have been praying for, run. In all things, run. We need to be like the children, completely sold out towards reaching Jesus. You don’t have to explain the reasons why something is true to a child, they simply trust what you tell them. We can trust in God, because it’s not only true, it’s the best decision we could ever make.

Be careful of the disciple mindset.

The mindset of the disciples in the story are very similar to the way many of us behave. They saw the children as not being able to comprehend or fully understand Jesus, the thing was, Jesus said that the disciples needed to be more like the children. We need to have a trust in our creator, not to have all the answers or know everything, simply trust in our father and let him direct the way. It’s easy for me personally to be cynical or want to close my mind, but the thing is, I need to remind myself daily to trust God. Just like I’ve been writing for the past two weeks, I can have faith in Christ because his way is so much better than whatever I may selfishly desire. I want to daily seek the heart of Christ, pressing into him like those children, and believing that all I need is Jesus. The disciples could have missed out, but Jesus told them to have the faith like a child. God wants us to do the same, have a faith like a child.

I think it’s so easy in a world where things make sense and all questions are answered in mere seconds, it can be hard to have the faith of a child. It’s easy to become hardened after difficult seasons, but the thing is, God wants us to run to him. No matter the mistakes, no matter what pain you’ve gone through; God simply wants you. So be like a child. Have that sense of wonder and an imagination that lets you be willing to have a bunch of fun (who doesn’t like pretending to be a merman?), and step into the presence of a savior that loves you. It’s that simple, run into the arms of the one who gave it all to rescue you.

Have the faith like a child, and trust in the love of your savior.

-Joshua Thomas