Suffer The Little Children
Read: Matthew 19:13-14; Mark 10:13-15
Key Verse: Matthew 19:14 – But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
In this passage of scripture, children were brought to Jesus so he could lay His hands on them but the disciples rebuked those who brought the children. Jesus did not like it and made a point not to forbid the children from coming to him because such is the Kingdom of God. Children (before they get corrupted by adults and society) are loving, trusting and believing. The attitude of a little child is how we should approach God. Adults tend to complicate things, whereas children believe in the possibilities.
The receptiveness of children was a great contrast to the stubbornness of the religious leaders who let their education and sophistication stand in the way of simple faith needed to believe in Jesus. In this scripture, Jesus is not talking about literally becoming a child but rather that our attitude, our philosophy or how we approach things. Little children are trusting, humble, dependent and forgiving. God wants us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. I believe that Christ used little children as the example because of their mind-set of childlike faith – the ability to just believe what you tell them and trust that you are going to do what you say.
When my son Mason was young he stood at the top of some concrete steps and said I’m going to jump. He said, Dad, are you going to catch me? When I said yes, without hesitation, he just jumped before I could even think about it he was airborne. I had to spring into action and catch him, which I did, but he had enough faith to believe that if my dad said he would catch me, I believe him so I’m going to jump. This is how God wants us to be with His word. If He said it, that should settle it and we should be willing to jump and trust that what God said, He will do.
Thought of the day:
How can I become more like a child-like in my attitude toward God and others today?