“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’” – Matthew 19:14

What does it mean to be like a child with respect to the Kingdom of Heaven? How do we have child-like faith in an age of cynicism, sarcasm, misinformation, radical autonomy, and doubt? Jesus’ words aren’t an invitation to be satisfied in ignorance or disinterested in matters of theology. After all, children are always full of questions! However, as adults, we have a tendency to gradually let our pursuit of questions and answers, certainty and knowledge crowd out or control our faith. Our goal in studying the Bible, learning the great truths about God, and engaging arguments for and against Christianity shouldn’t be to replace, limit, or put asterisks on our faith. Knowledge can’t save us – only faith in Christ can! Our faith must come first and our studies and debates should enrich and fuel our faith, not the other way around.

Little children ask numerous questions, but they always believe. They trust in the authority and capability of their parents even as they bombard us with questions. Likewise, as we wrestle with matters of faith, the Bible, and Christianity, we must do so in complete trust in God’s authority and ability to do all that the Bible reports He’s done and all that it promises He’ll do. Rather than approaching our faith by asking “how could God possibly do that” we ought to begin with awe, wonder, and respect for what the supreme and sovereign Creator has done.

Grow in your knowledge of God and His Word. Grow in your knowledge of church history and theology. But even more important, grow in your faith and don’t ever make your faith bow to your limited knowledge. That’s the difference between the faith of a child and that of a jaded, cynical, post-modern adult.

“The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.” – Psalm 16:4

Many today are running after another god. That includes many who go to church on Sundays and loudly proclaim the name of Jesus. Another god is whatever we pursue to such an extent that we fail to accept Jesus’ ongoing invitation to “Follow me”. Another god is the distraction, passion, or obsession we choose over God, whether we realize it or not. Another god is what prevents us from truly being reshaped into the image and character of Christ, even if we’ve been going to church for decades.

The other gods of our culture have many names: power, politics, pleasure, comfort, accomplishments, career, safety, health, choice, individualism, entertainment, sports, family, kids, money, food, retirement, fun, travel. Many of these things are fine in themselves, but when we spend our days and nights thinking about them, strategizing about them, celebrating them, and pursuing them rather than pursuing Christ, they have become gods to us.

Many will be the sorrow of all, Christian and non-Christian alike, who run after the vast number of other gods available in our 21st century life. Choose the one true God and put all the other gods in their proper place and discover true and lasting joy in Christ!

“He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”” – Matthew 17:20

How big is your faith??? Certainly if you have faith in Jesus Christ, your faith is big enough to save you. But is it big enough to move mountains? Are you even willing to try??? Sometimes we’re afraid to ask God for big things because we don’t want to be disappointed if He says no. We try to protect our small faith from disappointment or protect God from failing in our eyes. That’s not how we’re called to live!

The Bible certainly teaches us to pray in God’s will. We aren’t meant to treat prayer as a daily visit to Santa Claus. However, the Bible also teaches us to be bold and full of faith when we pray. We’re able to pray boldly and confidently because Christ reconciled us to God at the cross. Through Christ, we’re explicitly invited to come and pray boldly and honestly. We live by faith and must develop our faith muscles to pray in faith!

We mustn’t be afraid to ask God to move mountains for the sake of His Kingdom. Yes, He might turn us down or make us wait or give us something better, but we’ll never know until we ask in absolute faith. Christians sometimes have too little impact on this world because we’re afraid to ask the One Who wants us to make a huge impact for His sake!

Don’t be afraid to have and live big faith in God through Jesus Christ! He wants you to, invites you to, and His Word reveals what happens when His people learn to consistently live by Spirit-filled big faith.

“It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” – Matthew 15:11

As followers of Jesus, it’s always a good time to check what’s coming out of our mouths (and fingertips in this digital age). Jesus warns us that in Christ, filthiness isn’t related to what we eat, but is strongly related to what we say. Whether it’s in public or private, out loud or online, what we say reflects the condition of our heart. Many of us have work to do!!!

If our written or spoken words are angry, hateful, obscene, belittling, profane, racially charged, untrue, or cruel toward others, we have a serious heart condition! We must reflect not only on our words in our “good moments” when we’re on “good behavior” but more importantly on what we say or type in our bad moments. What do we say when we’re mad, frustrated, disappointed, hurt, or taken by surprise? Those words reflect the true condition of our heart.

Christ died to make us new creations when we put our faith in Him. He died to cleanse the cesspools of our hearts! Part of our new creation must be a commitment to work with the Holy Spirit in the renovation and repair of our whole heart. As we become aware of the remaining filth that spews out of our mouths, we must confess it to God and ask for His Spirit to cleanse and transform our hearts until they match the heart of Jesus our Savior.

Will we ever reach that point? Not this side of heaven. However, we’re called to continually battle, pray, work, and repent in our effort to grow in the likeness of Jesus.

“He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?’” – Matthew 15:3

When we read the Bible, we tend to say to ourselves, “Silly old Pharisees!” We see them as the fools, foils, and villains of so many of the events and stories in the life of Jesus. We mustn’t settle for this shallow thinking, otherwise we’ll easily wind up like them!

The Pharisees passionately loved God and the Bible (the Old Testament part, of course). They loved God so much that they built mountains of extra rules and traditions on top of God’s commandments so they would never break God’s Law. Unfortunately, in the process, they elevated their traditions above God’s heart and will. Their deep adherence to small details caused profound disobedience to God. In so doing, they became the enemies of Christ we think of in such cartoonish terms today.

As Christians, we’ve often made exactly the same mistake as the Pharisees. We quite often elevate our traditions, preferences, habits, and practices to extraordinary levels while losing sight of God’s true calling and heart. We tend to focus and fight over worship times, music styles, clothing, and even carpet colors. All the while, the spiritually lost continue to face a Christ-less eternity of suffering!

We naturally tend to elevate what we’ve always done (that’s tradition, not Scripture) over the radical following of Jesus Christ. We must always teach and obey God’s Word, but we must also regularly and critically evaluate where we’ve elevated traditions over Christ Himself, preferences over faithfulness, and form over functional obedience to the Great Commission and Great Commandment. Never dismiss the Pharisees without first asking yourself if you’ve become one of them!