As Little Children?

Matt 18:2 "..unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Ok, pretty straight forward statement. However, many Christians will overlook this short statement Jesus made. Never is a strong word. So, we need to know what this means, because it simply tells us one thing we need to do to enter heaven.

We need to be like little children. This means more than just happy go lucky, playful type attitudes. When Jesus taught us this, children had no rights. They had no voice, no protection and no value on their own. Too small and insignificant to even make a good slave.

Children need to be fed. They can't work, and can't get their own food. They are completely dependent. They need to be protected, nurtured and fed. They need examples of how to grow up properly. Here, we are now beginning to get the key examples of how we are to be like children.

We need to be completely dependent upon Jesus. We grow up and we start to feel pretty good about ourselves. The world values independence and we start to feel arrogant about our abilities. We are proud of our work, our possessions and think we are to hold the glory of our existence. We grow so dependent upon ourselves and our abilities that it starts to blind us of any need for God.

If things go wrong in the world or in our lives then we blame others. We blame a boss, spouse, the other political party and eventually we blame even God. Or, we turn all the blame upon ourselves and instead of feeling God's love and grace we feel shame and depression.

We need to be completely dependent, like children. We need to be dependent upon Jesus. We need to look to him for or self worth. We are the children of God. We are his masterpiece. He supplies all we need. He supplies our daily bread. He opens doors that we could not open ourselves. God supplies the good in our lives. We need to give Him the glory for our shelter. He is the reason we have our jobs and can earn a living to feed to our families. Jesus should be our example of how to live our lives. Not a sports hero or celebrity or super rich entrepreneur.

We need to rise daily and look to Jesus to fulfill or daily needs, give us protection and supply the grace of His love. When we become dependent as children on the love of our God, then we are assured of entering heaven. If we remain dependent upon ourselves, then we can only open the door that we by ourselves have constructed.

Enter into this loving relationship with Jesus today. Begin today, renew today or strengthen today, your relationship with Jesus Christ.