Christian Living

LIKE A CHILD

by Bridget Howe 
01/09/21
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I have been pondering over the scripture verse in Hebrews which says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV).  When I was a youth in the youth group I would ponder this dilemma that we have to have faith for God to answer a prayer. But if we pray and there is no answer, how does that encourage faith? We have all prayed and have received answers to our prayers, and we stand by our God when we say, “God answers prayer!” However, we all have to face the reality that we have had many prayers that have gone unanswered. So having been a believer for 46 years, I have lots of unanswered prayers. So I got to a point where I wanted God to address this problem with me, and I wouldn’t shut up about it. So he had to respond. I was diligent.

I have a puzzling kind of mind. I have a BA in psychology and so I am inclined to analyze things that don’t make sense to me. I also have a background in Military Intelligence, so I am also inclined to take the pieces of a puzzle and try to put them together to get a clearer picture. So I am going to take the various pieces of my puzzle and lay them out for you here.  

- “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” John 14:13-14 NRSV

- “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 NRSV

But we know these verses. We memorized them in Sunday School. And yet ...

Well now, I want to look at another verse in the Bible which many have debated. “He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-3 NRSV). What does that mean? Are we to be childlike or childish? I would like to look at it from another perspective. Years ago, when I was at Ft. Meade MD, I had gone shopping in one of the many malls in that area. This particular mall was several stories high and had an escalator that was surrounded on every floor with a glass barrier to keep people from falling. On that particular day, there was a little girl, a toddler, who had wandered away from her mother. She was just a little thing with blond curly hair, and she was in despair. “Mommy,” she quietly whimpered as she leaned her head on that glass wall over the escalator. When you are that small in a big place, and you have lost your mother, it is terrifying.  My heart went out to her, and I was about to reach out to her to try to help when her mother spotted her from just a few feet away. The woman came to a retrieved her daughter. The little girl, obviously relieved, wrapped her little arms around her mother’s neck like she wasn’t ever going to let go. Now, I want to ask you something, can you imagine that little girl surviving without her mother? Of course not. It’s inconceivable.

So what do we need God for? Well, we can’t get to heaven without him. However, I can get myself out of bed in the morning without him. I don’t need him to get me in the shower and get myself dressed. I can get my breakfast without his help, and I can drive myself to work without giving him a thought. I can get through a day at work without him. I can even go to church, sing a few songs, listen to a sermon even if I don’t sense him anywhere near me. I can do my daily devotions and say my prayers daily without ever sensing the presence of God. And that is exactly the problem. That is not the kind of relationship God wants to have with us. We treat God like our Administrative Assistant. He’s holding down the office while we are out and about taking care of business. “I need this letter typed, please check the supply closet to see if we need any supplies, please answer the phone and message me if there is anything important. . .” or the drive-through at MacDonald’s, “I want a Quarter Pounder meal please, large size with a coke. . .” We go through our day and God becomes another checkmark on our things-to-do list. That’s not what Jesus shed his blood for.

Maybe our problem is that we see God as being very far away, up there in Heaven. He is distant and literally out of this world. But is he really? This is what he says in Isaiah 66:1 “Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is my resting place?” (Isaiah 66:1 NRSV). That verse was used in a popular worship song (Brian Doerksen, Resting Place) which is one of my favorites. Notice that the tense of the verb “to be” is in the present tense. It doesn’t say, “Heaven is my throne and earth was my footstool.” It is in the here and now, “... the earth is my footstool.” Have you ever pondered the aurora borealis? I know what science says about it, but I believe that the aurora borealis is the hem of Yahweh’s garment. It is made of light. He is resting his feet on the earth. He is not far away. He is right here.  

Oh, I want to sing.

Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.  
Where is the house you will build for me?  
Who of you will hear the cry of my heart.
Where will my resting place be?

Here O Lord have I prepared a resting place
Long have I desired for you to dwell
Here O Lord have I prepared a resting place
Here O Lord I wait for you alone

The kind of relationship Yahweh wants to have with us is the kind of relationship that the little girl had with her mother. He wants us to miss his presence. He wants us to hunger for him such that we just can’t get by without him. If he’s missing for 5 minutes, our heats should be panting for him. Listen to what the Psalmist says,

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?” Psalms 42:1-3 NRSV

We should be asking, “God where are you? Where are you?” Our problem is that we allow the stuff of earth to compete for the allegiance we owe only to the give of all good things, so sang the late recordings artist Rich Mullins. We get wrapped up in the day to day shopping online, paying bills, getting to work on time, keeping the house clean and the bushes trimmed and we are too satisfied by the life we live in this world that we have no room for God. There is no empty spot for God to fill. It takes intention to have a relationship with God.  

I remember when I was a lowly sergeant at Ft. Meade. I had a barracks room, just four walls, a bathroom, a mini-refrigerator, and a microwave. I went to the mess hall for meals or to McDonald’s if I couldn’t bear it anymore. I had many many fewer distractions when I was in the military.  During that period of time,  God was in my thoughts all day long.  I prayed three times a day.  I longed for my devotional time.  So when a coworker was being sued for divorce by her husband, I went before the Lord pleading her case.  In the state that I was in, I knew that the Lord had answered my prayers before there was any real evidence.  My coworkers were shocked when the marriage was repaired.  His word says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NRSV). Like our Brother Lawrence, we need to be in an attitude of prayer all day long.

"Here O Lord have I prepared a resting place.  Long have I desired for you to dwell."  So when the scripture says, “ . . . Whoever comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.’  It isn’t just talking about how to get God to answer a prayer.  Diligently seeking God means that we seek him for him, not just for what he can do for us.  He wants a relationship with us that is full of tenderness, passion, and even romance.  He wants to be the center of your world.  He wants you for you because he is in love with you.  If he withdraws from you, it is because you got distracted and let him out of your sight.  You wandered off, but he isn’t far.  He sees you. He knows where you are.

When we want him because we want him, then asking him for something is not a major issue.  But we also have to learn to be patient with God.  He is immeasurably patient with us.  We humble ourselves like a little child, we cling to him like our life depends on it, and we wait patiently for him.  While we continue to seek God for deliverance from the things that distress us, we are reminded that what God does is perfect in every way.  What he works out for us is also going to be perfect in every way.  Our problem is that we always have a plan B if God doesn’t come through.  “I’ll work it out somehow.”  But what if we let go of plan B.  What if we just waited patiently on God because we decide to trust his goodness and grace.

“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17 NRSV