Tag: Faith

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The Maturity of Childlike Trust

For several years, Howard and Kim and their two children joined other families on an annual short-term mission trip to Quinhagak, Alaska, a remote village 350 miles below the Arctic Circle and just a mile off the Bering Sea. Arriving their first year, the adults — about 18 of them — gathered in a school building to pray and strategize about how to interact with this Yupik indigenous people group. How do we connect? How do we relate? Yupik is their primary language, so how do we build relationships? At some point during their contemplation, the adults looked outside the windows at the dilapidated playground where the Yupik kids and their young guests from the lower 48 were “having the time of their lives,” truly bonding in the universal language of play. Kim recalls, “It was like God saying, ‘Just be like little kids. Humble yourself, just relate.’”

We tend to complicate things, don’t we? Relationships, foremost. Ultimately our openness comes down to this: Can I trust your character, and can I expose mine? The children of Quinhagak and their new friends showed what it means to live “Yes” and “Yes,” naturally connecting, relating, and building relationships. And wasting no time in the process! It recalls an incident when twelve gatekeeping disciples attempted to bar children from Jesus’ presence. “[Jesus] was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’”1 Isn’t this the kind of open relationship God desires to have with all of us — joyful, unhindered, belonging, receiving? There was amid these children no second-guessing of Jesus’ character, nor was there any holding back of their own, just eagerness and trust, delighting in Him who delights in us.

This is submission of self in confidence to Christ. This is the maturity of childlike trust. Then may we, too, “humble ourselves, and just relate.” With Jesus.

Epilogue. “And [Jesus] took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.”2 May He do the same with us, His children, today.

O Lord, You are compassionate and good, humble and kind, truthful and forgiving. Remind us each day of Your boundless love for us, that we would eagerly, openly and completely trust You with our very lives. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Mark 10:14-15 NIV
2 Mark 10:16 NIV

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The Unseen God Sees Us

“We walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

As children, my brother, sister, and I engaged one day in an impromptu game of Hide & Seek. Eric was the seeker and, after he found me, we both went searching for Lisa, who was two years old at the time. We found her lying face down on the kitchen floor, her hands covering her eyes, and being very quiet. Our mother whispered to us that, since Lisa could not see us, she thought we could not see her. So Eric and I started walking about the house, asking aloud, “Where’s Lisa? Where’s Lisa?” A little betraying giggle arose from the kitchen floor. “There she is!”

In his first letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul exalted God as “the unseen one . . . he alone is God.”1 Not seeing Him, however, sometimes leaves us wondering if He sees us. Oddly, we’re quite convinced He observes our sins, but less certain as to our hurts and needs. We lament with David, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”2 Yes, fear comes to us more naturally than faith. But God is loving and faithful, and He acts in His higher ways and in His perfect timing. For instance, when Sarai’s pregnant servant Hagar fled from her in fear, an angel appeared and assured Hagar not only of a son, but offspring beyond number.3 So, Hagar gave this name to the Lord: El Roi, or “You are the God who sees me.”4 What a humble, beautiful and liberating confession.

Paul teaches us, “The things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal,”5 and so “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.”6 That’s what faith is, “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”7 It is the creature who is flesh submitting to the Creator who is Spirit. And our faith pleases God, for it echoes throughout the heavens and the earth His character, moreover the entrustment of ourselves to Him.

Then what must we do? Seek Him boldly and in full confidence, for the unseen God will not hide from us. Rather, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”8

Father, today I rest completely in this: You are the God who sees me. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.9 In Christ we live; in Him we pray. Amen.

1 1 Timothy 1:17 NLT
2 Psalm 13:1 ESV, emphasis added
3 Genesis 16:7-12 ESV
4 Genesis 16:17 NIV
5 2 Corinthians 4:18b ESV
6 2 Corinthians 4:18a ESV
7 Hebrews 11:1 NIV, emphasis added
8 Matthew 6:6 NIV
9 1 Timothy 1:17 ESV

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True Belief: Reliance on God

Upon retiring a decade ago, I chose to take half my pension in a lump sum and the remainder in a series of monthly installments. The initial check was to come via courier on a certain day, so I waited for the doorbell — surely they would hand over my treasure face-to-face. As the day went on, I became progressively edgier until, stepping out the front door at one point, I glanced down and noticed an envelope half sticking out from beneath our welcome mat. There it lay, half of a pension built up over 35 years of hard work, now exposed with all the “protection” of a doormat. At that moment and all the way to the bank, I couldn’t wait to get this life savings transfer instrument out of my clutches and safely into the hands of those on whose security I could rely.

In John’s first letter to the early church, and specifically in 1 John 4:7 – 5:5, the apostle mentioned “love” or its variations — “loves,” “loved,” and “loving” — 32 times in 20 short verses. The passage is as much refreshing as amazing. Yet buried in all this love-speak was another four-letter word worth exploring: rely. John writes: “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”1 Most versions accurately translate the word as “believe,” yet the NIV’s use of “rely” here urges us toward a level of belief far beyond mental assent, to a relinquishment of self-will and complete entrustment of our entire lives to God, whose ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours.2

Paul exemplifies belief to the point of reliance. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”3 The bold apostle understood true belief means relinquishing self-will and relying completely on God. Of his former religious achievements and repute, Paul now considered “everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”4 This is the kind of belief to which we are called, belief to the point of entrustment. This is life safely deposited in Christ on whose love we can rely. Take it to the bank.

“Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” — Colossians 3:3 NIV

Father, You are good, and in goodness You reach out to us. So fill us with the knowledge of Your love that we would joyfully rely on You every step of our lives. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 1 John 4:15-16 NIV
2 Isaiah 55:6
3 Galatians 2:20 NIV
4 Philippians 3:8 NIV