Being Childlike with Abba

We have a society who values achievement, success, image, performance, outdoing others, unlimited information, competition, and being a person who makes things happen.  It is in this same type of backdrop of a Roman society (ours is a Roman society on steroids or Performance Enhancing Drugs) that Jesus is challenged with the question of who is the Greatest in the Kingdom?  Jesus like other times flips the world system on it's head and brings a little child before Him to give the disciples an object lesson.  Matthew 18:1-4, "At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?  And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all].  Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  He says you must become like a child (trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving) to become the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, not exactly the list of qualifications I would be looking for when it comes to the greatest.  My list might be more like:  quick thinker, good decision-maker, strong, together, cool, calm, collected, sharp, on top of his game, and smarter than everyone else.  I think I still have too much of the world's ways of thinking.  I once heard someone say that to increase with God you must have downward mobility, I rejected it as a young believer opted more for the world's view even though I could not measure up.  More and more I am seeing that the key to increase in the Kingdom is humility and being childlike in faith.  I have tried to strain, read lots of books, worship, read Scripture, and deal with the issues in my life to increase in faith.  Yet what seems to actually work is when I cry out and confess the depth of my unbelief, it is then that the Father breaks through to pour out the faith I lack.  I knew the Gospel can nearly be summarized in a verse but I am reminded of the simplicity in all the complexities of modern adult life:  "for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD,BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." (1Peter 5:5)  Could it be that Father is not looking for people who have all their theology right, know the Bible backwards and forwards, are trying hard to live the Christian life, but for children who come to Him with simple trust and open their hearts to receive His love and grace.  In ministering to people over the years, the greatest breakthroughs I see in people's lives are when they are in that place of being childlike, at their most vulnerable, weak, and place of greatest need.  It seems to me that Pharisee ism is still alive today with us posturing, hiding, and attempting to be what we think God wants.  Rather He is a loving Father looking for those who will humble themselves to accept His invitation to become one of His children.  We have already been given this open invitation through Jesus Christ, in John 1:12-13 "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."  Scripture does not say we have the right to become adults of God but children, will you accept and follow the invitation to encounter the Father.

In Abba's arms,
Bret