Childlike faith
Series: Welcome home | Bible text: Matthew 18:2–4
Jesus challenges his companions to repent and become like children (Matthew 18:3). To become truly at home with the heavenly Father requires a childlike faith. Someone finds such a faith when he has left behind the previous phases of «naïve faith» and «complex faith».
Four weeks ago, a woman here in the service told how she had found a childlike faith through severe afflictions. Childlike faith is a sign of maturity in the relationship with the heavenly Father. «Then Jesus called a little child to him and set him before them. Then he said: I assure you: Unless you repent and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever becomes as little as this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.»(Matthew 18:2–4).
Recently I read about an evangelical pastor called Andreas who preaches lively sermons and is a good pastor. He is on his knees and is very well respected in his congregation. But no one has any idea how he feels inside. That he is totally desperate. That a terrible battle is raging inside him and that he only maintains his everyday life with alcohol. Always so little that no one notices, but so much that he doesn’t have to think any further.
How did it all come about? It all started with a happy family. But when his daughter Lisa was three years old, she fell ill with leukaemia. His life was completely thrown off track, it was the beginning of a months-long period of suffering – for the child and for the parents. Chemotherapies and a long, hard road followed. And indeed: after two years, the daughter could be considered cured. At seven, she started school and should have led a normal life. But then the disease broke out again. Nine months later, the parents had to bury their daughter – she had not made it. The loss of a child is a huge wound that heals only very slowly. Andreas did not want to talk about the pain, he withdrew. He didn’t want to pray either – certainly not with his wife. He had lost his naïve childlike faith. At baptisms, parents sometimes chose the verse from Psalm 91:11: «For he commands his angels to protect you wherever you go.«To him, this word sounded like sheer mockery.
But then there was a decisive turn in his life. On the way to a church conference, he visited a motorway church at a rest stop. He had never been to a motorway church before and wanted to see it. He saw the candles, the light, the pictures in the windows. He became very calm. His eyes fell on a postcard: «He that sitteth under the shelter of the Most High, and abideth under the shadow of the Almighty, saith unto the LORD, My confidence and my fortress, my God, in whom I hope»(Lut). And immediately he knew which Psalm this quotation was from: Psalm 91! He took the Bible and read the Psalm. In tears he read verse 10: «No evil shall befall thee, and no plague shall come near thy house.» (Lut). «Lord, why are there such words? That is simply not true!» Didn’t you have to be completely naïve to pray like that? Yes, when he was a child, his faith was simple and uncomplicated. God was superman and in the world there was only good and evil, black and white. You could trust the Bible blindly, it was God’s word – and if that’s what it said, then that’s how it was!
It was only as a teenager that faith became complicated for him. Much, much more complicated. And in his theology studies he was completely shaken up. And then: Lisa, the daughter. Her illness, her pain, her suffering and her death.
He remembered a moment at his daughter’s bedside. He was sitting at her bedside and couldn’t stop crying. Then his daughter took his hand, squeezed it and said: «Dad, you don’t have to worry about me. I know that Jesus is holding me. And we will meet again in heaven!«His daughter had what he had lost: a childlike faith. She sat under the umbrella of the Most High, and she remained in the shadow of Almighty God in her illness. It was she who said to the heavenly Father: «My confidence and my fortress, my God in whom I hope»!
That was years ago now. Andreas» faith has changed. He knows about the worries and needs of the people and does not ignore them. Even his own wounds are not yet completely healed, but in all of this and with all of this he has learned to trust childlike and to take refuge with God.
Naive faith
When we start with Jesus and faith in him, our faith is mostly naive. If there are problems, we just pray for it: God will take care of it. You don’t question it. The world is simple. Life is simple. It says so – then it will be so! In many ways one is naïve at the beginning. You talk to people about Jesus and are surprised and amazed that they don’t convert straight away. God does hear, God does intervene! As a child, you believe that your father knows everything and can do everything. When the vase falls down while playing and shatters into a thousand pieces, you are one hundred percent convinced that daddy can fix it. In the same way, one is convinced that the heavenly Father can do everything and does everything.
Faith in this phase is like a mathematical equation that seems to be easy to solve at first sight. But then, little by little, questions and problems arise. Things that we do not understand. I prayed… Why didn’t God intervene?
Complex faith
Presumably, these phases have to be like this: From naïve to complex faith. Naïve also means to ignore reality. Naïve is someone who does not take note of the facts. Someone who simply walks through the world. Then it must come o: The difficult, complex faith begins. This often happens around the time of religious maturity at the age of 16. There, we challenge the young people to find an independent, mature faith. Now it is said: «You can’t see it that simply!» Many adult Christians live in phase two – with a difficult, complicated and complex faith. Clarified. Some have long since become cynical or even a little haughty: «First make my experiences, then you will also see that the thing with the preservation of God is not so simple!«One smiles at others. Everything is complicated. And if you then go on to have a science education, «the kettle is mended all the more». In an enlightened society, you can’t just believe so naively. After all, the motto of the Enlightenment is not for nothing: «Have the courage to use your own mind!»
Accompanying symptoms in this phase also include various kinds of doubts. How can scientific knowledge be combined with the doctrine of creation? How can a good God allow so much suffering in the world? From witnessing blamelessly dying children, people have made the decision to become atheists. Is God only opium for the people? Is God only an idea for people who cannot cope with life? Why do we experience so few healings when Jesus conquered sickness and death on the cross?
In this phase, you begin to solve the mathematical equation and realise that a page-long decomposition of the terms follows and it becomes really difficult to keep track. It takes utmost concentration not to make a mistake. I, too, used to think in very complicated terms. At that time, I preferred the kind of books that somehow wanted to prove that the Bible was right after all and that God actually existed. The following questions preoccupied me: Why is this so – and why didn’t God act – and how could this happen – and what do I do if …?
Simple-minded faith
It is precisely such people from the second phase that Jesus challenges: «Then he said: I assure you: Unless you repent and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.» Jesus demands a clear decision: to repent and become like the children. Apparently, it needs a decision from us. Many like to get stuck in complex beliefs and even bask in them. They are just intellectual and have brains. It takes the realisation that my questioning and brooding doesn’t get me anywhere. We need to take a different seat. I no longer sit under the hail of complicated thoughts, eternal doubts and constant questions. I sit down under the umbrella of the Most High. And there I will remain, in the shadow of the Almighty God.
Simple faith knows about the worries and needs of this world. It does not ignore them like naïve faith. He has often even experienced them himself – and yet he decides to trust God in all of this like a child. This is a faith that can move mountains. It is this simple, childlike, simple faith that carries people and holds them. It holds them even in the worst situations of their lives.
In our mathematical task we now come to the glorious moment when suddenly there is a very simple solution at the end. The very simplicity of the solution proves to me that I have calculated correctly! But the path was necessary. I could have copied the solution from my neighbour, but then I would never have known why it was right. I could also have guessed a solution, but then I would never have been sure.
The Lord God says: «For as much as the heavens are higher than the earth, so much higher are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.»(Isaiah 55:9). In the complex phase, we are offended by such statements. But when we then find a humble, childlike faith, we marvel at it: «How wonderful is God! How immeasurable are his riches, how profound his wisdom and knowledge! Impossible is it for us to comprehend his decisions and ways! […] For all things come from him; all things exist by his power and are destined for his glory. To Him belongs the glory for ever and ever! Amen» (Romans 11:33–36). It is the highest form of worship when we hold on to the belief that God is good – even when it doesn’t seem so.
Where do you sit? Do you sit under the searing rays of doubt and eternal pondering? Or are you hiding in the shadow of Almighty God? I invite you to let go before God. To let brooding, questioning, doubting, weighing die. To recognise it as a dead end and pride and let it go. To entrust myself to God like a child. To ask the Holy Spirit to give me a simple-minded faith that says: «Dad – dear father!».
Yesterday, at the meal of sorrow, I talked to a woman who lost her husband about seven years ago, when she was 44 years old. She told me about her difficult journey. But she also told me that in her everyday life people often tell her that she has a special charisma. For her, it is clear that this is a consequence of her difficult fate. A childlike, simple faith is often hard-won. But it has charisma that touches me. These people experience a security in God’s presence that moves me deeply and that I want to be infected by.
Possible questions for the small groups
Read Bible text: Matthew 18:2–4
- How do the different phases of faith show up in Andrew’s story?
- Most Christians stay in the area of complex faith. Where do you see complex or complicated parts in yourself? How do you deal with them?
- What distinguishes naïve faith from simple-minded faith?
- Why is it desirable to find childlike faith? What does it mean to be under the umbrella of the Most High?
- Have you already made the decision to become like a child? Pray for each other for a childlike faith!
