M-G: 2.21.14 // Hanging on to a Childlike Faith, Part 2 of 2

One of the major reasons why our God is too small in our lives is our attitude and treatment of God’s special revelation given to us – the Bible. Apart from the Scriptures, we are only left with general revelation – creation. Those who ignore learning about the God of the Bible seldom, if ever, even look up and ponder over the immensity, magnificence, awesome power, and faithfulness of the Creator (cf. Psa 8:3-4).

Intelligent design demands an intelligent Designer. God is here among us, and He is not silent. Read the communiqués of creation about the Creator (Psa 19:1-8). God took it to a Universal scope to provide a place for man and reveal His awesome Majesty. Some say He went over the top; did He? It seems from our point of view that God went through an incredible and incomprehensible effort to provide a place for man within the cold interstellar space and reveal His glory to him. 

But God didn’t stop there for general revelation cannot convert sinners, yet holds man accountable to the Creator (Rom 1:18ff). Stretching a period of over 1500 years, spanning three continents, three languages, and forty authors of diverse backgrounds, God’s special revelation is comprised of 66 books with one consistent message of God’s eternal plan from creation to the cross to consummation. Then He gifted men with the ability to translate His Word into the many different languages of the world so that all men might receive the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ His Son as revealed by special revelation (Acts 4:12; Jn 14:6; 2 Tim 3:15).

In spite of the immeasurable effort of general and special revelation on God’s part to reveal Himself to man, provide a way of redemption for man, and prepare a place for him in glory forever, we come to a common trait among marginal believers who make one of the most indifferent and unthankful responses to God in His all-out overtures for man, “I don’t like to read!” From a human perspective, nothing could be more deflating and degrading by a believer in ignoring God’s revelations!

In this context, such a feeble excuse encapsulates and represents a pervasive attitude that naturally leads to apostasy. Is this the spiritual legacy we pass on to our children – “You can get through life without God or the Bible; billions do; you can, too!” This may not be articulated, but attitudes and actions are quickly mirrored by the children. There is a spirit of no fear of God and a gross indifference to intimately knowing Him through the Word that has descended upon Christendom like a dark, ominous cloud. So even believers wind up getting angry and questioning, accusing, and blaming the “I- don’t-know-God” of natural and senseless tragedies on earth, like the lost do – “How could a God of love allow…?”

Such a “faith” is light years away from the simple trust and utter dependence of a little child. How do we get back to that childlike faith for it is obvious that it takes more trust and dependence to live for God on a daily basis than at salvation? We entered the kingdom of God with childlike faith, but we quickly deduced by our own wisdom that we needed an adultlike faith in the daily demands of life to live for God. 

So we began to mature with an adultlike faith that wrestled with simple trust and utter dependence and opted for conditional trust (we decided when to trust or took matters into our own hands) and wrongly believed that God was not big enough to suit our needs. Yeah, He’s big enough and got us covered for salvation, but too small to watch our backs in the daily routines of life. In all of this, we forgot how to simply trust and became ever fearful of leaving being independent. We got taller, but God got smaller.

Solomon described what I believe illustrates childlike faith in the LORD in Prov 3:5-6. Ironically, this is a popular life verse among many, but I wonder if it’s embraced where the rubber meets the road! If we are not presently living out that Solomonic pattern, we are not going to be able to return to it without crossing the bridge of 1Jn 1:9 (cf. Jas 4:17). There are no negotiations, no bilateral agreements in this matter. We must be in agreement with God’s unmovable position about our spiritual condition that is interfering with maturing with childlike faith, one characterized by simple trust (“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;”) and utter dependence (“In all your ways acknowledge Him,”). Then we will know what to do (“and He shall direct your paths.”). Jeremiah recognized this,

“O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps (10:23; cf. Prov 16:9; 20:24).

Why aren’t we getting this? It is one thing to know the path and quite another to walk the path. This path is often revealed through the Scriptures, but can also be determined in conjunction with counsel of wise and godly believers, providential circumstances, inward peace under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, or a combination thereof. The step of faith, however, is on us. 

What we do know is that if you reverse Solomon’s requirements of God in bringing us to the appointed goal of His will for us, that half-heartedness (counterpart: trust in the LORD with all your heart), insufficiency of human insight (counterpart: lean not on your own understanding) and a spirit of independence (counterpart: in all your ways acknowledge Him) will make life more problematic for us by being disobedient. Misdirected trust, human reliance, and independence are all detrimental to knowing, performing, and achieving God’s will.

At spiritual regeneration or salvation, regardless of biological age, we are considered as newborn babies in need of milk or nourishment (cf. 1 Pet 2:2; 1 Cor 3:1-3; Heb 13:13-14) and are expected to grow and develop in the newness of life (Rom 6:4) in conformity to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 8:29; Eph 4:13; Php 3:20-21; Col 1:28; 1 Jn 3:2). One of the proofs of possessing spiritual life is hungering for the Word of God.1 This is the thrust of spiritual growth, being like Jesus Christ. In the physical world the child patterns after the parents or some other, but in the spiritual world the only pattern for spiritual growth for every born again believer is Jesus Christ.

Here is the challenge of such spiritual ambition – we never ultimately reach our destination on this side of eternity. We never stop growing because Jesus Christ is eternal, infinite, and immutable or without change. It is inferred by the verb tense in Peter's usage of the verb “grow” (2 Pet 3:18); it is in the present active imperative in Greek which indicates a continuous action that is unending. Consequently, we are commanded to never stop growing until that day we see Him face to face (Eph 4:15, 22-24; Col 1:10; Rom 12:2; 1 Cor 13:12; 15:52; 2 Cor 3:18; 2 Thess 1:3; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2 1 Jn 3:2-3 ).

This certainly runs counterintuitive to our natural way of thinking of growing up in a hurry, getting a jump on spiritual adulthood. We are reminded that sinful propensities and activities of the individual have a way of delaying spiritual development; so learning and obedience must go hand in hand, or there is little to no growth. We see this with those believers that have been born again for years but are still spiritually infantile. They never got out of the crib and into the Word where crawling faith turned into a walking faith and a walking faith turned into a running faith (1 Cor 9:24; Heb 12:1, 2).

Well, if we cannot be completely like Christ, why bother then? Because we are commanded to (2 Pet 3:18); because we love Him (Jn 14:15); because we desire to be like Him (1 Jn 3:2); because we are going to spend eternity with Him in glory (Jn 14:3; 1 Thess 4:17)! Those reasons should suffice. I never met a man or woman who was completely like Christ in every aspect of their life anyway; they don’t exist; love and patience work well here. To reach perfection requires glorification, forever free from sin on the other side of eternity. But this inability to achieve perfection on this side of eternity doesn’t negate the command by Peter under Divine inspiration of being spiritually mature and continuing to grow more like our blessed Lord while hanging on to a childlike faith on our journey through life.

Our faith should be characterized by simple trust in God and exercising an utter dependence upon Him; we will never outgrow that. We can avoid our God being too small in our life if we follow Solomon’s pattern in Proverbs. It is well worth following for in so doing we can grow while hanging on to a childlike faith that enables us to know and pursue the path of righteousness. Such a quality of faith acknowledges the royal right of Jesus Christ to royally rule in our life, and a simple trust in Christ and utter dependence upon Him simply confirm His right to rule on our part (Mk 10:15). <><

End of Series

1Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on 2 Pet 2:1-3