Seeking Jesus like a child

yesterday, Monty asked me if I could deliver a word. I said I’d have to pray and see what popped up and all about two seconds later here comes Samuel crawling over wanting to be stuck on me so I said OK Lord, let’s see what you’ve got. So I went, sat in the hot tub, watched and felt the snowfall and thought and prayed and wrote, and here it is.

How often do you see Jesus talk about children and being like a child? (Matthew 18:3 – “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mark 10:15, Luke 18:17, How much does your kid want to be around you? If yours are anything like mine, they want to help and want to do what you’re doing—even if it’s a chore like splitting wood with the tractor, pulling it up to the house and stacking it, cleaning out the garage, or even helping with the dishes. They like doing it because it’s with you. And when something’s wrong or they’re afraid or they need something, they reach out and grab onto the parent, cry when they need something because they don’t know how to articulate it, and we as good parents hold them and try and make it better.

They (and we) grow up and get more willful and independent, and stop wanting to help so much. Maybe it was fun at first, but now it’s just work. Now, maybe they’ll help if you ask, but you don’t want to ask. You just want them to help because it needs doing. They and we become more and more independent. Eventually they grow to the age where they can do things for themselves—get their own food, clean, pick up their own messes—but sometimes, or maybe even often, they make choices about how to accomplish something that you have to look at and just shake your head. “Son, there’s such an easier way, a better way to do things.” You want to just show them, save them the pain of figuring it out, and show them the way it should be. But eventually they get big enough that you have to let them figure things out on their own, but you’re still there, simply waiting for them to ask for help or advice so that you can show them the way things should be done, the way they should behave, the choices they should make for their own good.

Eventually their motivations and yours will be at odds. They’ll want to play video games instead of helping. Eventually they’re going to decide to do things you know aren’t just not the optimal choice, but are actually harmful for them. Maybe it’s something as mild as leaving a note at home: “Don’t watch TV until after you finish your homework,” because you know they’ll fail the class if they don’t turn in enough homework and they like watching TV. What about when they’re old enough that the choices aren’t just things that limit their potential growth, but are actually harming them—going out with friends and getting drunk, hanging out with people that they really shouldn’t be associating with, deciding they really can beat Evil Knievel’s record? Well, my children aren’t old enough for me to have firsthand experience with those.

Now, when your kids are hurt or in trouble, would you take that for them if you could? God, as our Heavenly Father, is in exactly that position with us. Only, instead of just thinking we know the right way and the best choices, He actually does (Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”). And instead of just wishing that He could pay for our mistakes, He actually did (1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” Also Isaiah 53:5 – “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”).

I can say that raising kids has given me a much better appreciation for just a little bit of what it must be like for God to watch us. He knows the perfect path—the way that will give us the best blessings, the best results, the least amount of pain, the most amount of development, the best rewards—and instead of coming and asking Him, we do it our own way. We get hurt, we lose out on blessings, and we lose eternal rewards.

Now, if we as parents feel hurt when our children reject us, make the wrong choices, don’t ask for advice, and grieve when they’re sick or in pain, how much worse must that be for God? Did you know you can hurt God? Scripture tells us to grieve not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30 – “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”).

Worse than all of these things—most of which only matter over a very short period of time—imagine what it’s like to have your children stray so far that they’re worthy of death, and you offered to trade places with them and freely take the penalty, pay the price for them, and they ignore you or even worse reject you. Jesus came and died on the cross to pay that penalty for us, and all we have to do is ask, “Please save me.”

Like the best parent, He’s not vindictive. He doesn’t ask you to beg for forgiveness. There’s no shaming or bringing your misdeeds back up every time there’s a disagreement. He doesn’t demand some payment in return. He just says yes and does it. And if that weren’t enough, once you’ve done that, He’ll send you His Spirit, and some of those chores you hated doing so much—well, now you may find you actually enjoy doing them because you know it pleases Him.

Think about the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). That younger son demanded his inheritance early—like saying to his father, “I’d rather have your stuff than you.” He went off and squandered it all in wild living, ending up broke, starving, and feeding pigs—even the pigs’ slop looked better than he was. When he finally came to his senses, he decided to go back home, not even expecting to be a son anymore—just hoping to be a hired hand. But the father was watching for him. While the son was still a long way off, the father ran to him, threw his arms around him, kissed him, and celebrated his return with a feast. No lectures, no “I told you so,” no making him earn his way back. Just pure, extravagant love and restoration. That’s exactly what being saved is like: We stray, we waste what God has given us, we hit rock bottom, but when we turn back and come to Him—even just to ask for mercy—He runs to us, embraces us, forgives us completely, and throws a party in heaven over one sinner who repents. It’s not about what we’ve done to deserve it; it’s about the Father’s heart that’s always waiting, always ready to welcome us home.

And even though that gift He gave you is the most valuable thing in the entire universe, and He gave it to you freely, and you know you’ll never be able to repay it, you’ll want to do things for Him because you’re so thankful. And because God is so much more generous and loving than we are, you can never out-give Him. God is the ultimate one-up’er.

Now, if you’ve been with us in our Sunday night Bible studies in Samuel, you’ll remember how we made a big point about pointing out that David went to God for every little thing when he was passing those tests—even obvious things like “Lord, should I go rescue my friends and family that have been kidnapped? Should I go this way? Should I go that way? What should I do?” Every little thing. That’s how we should be approaching Him. We’re told that David is a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), and I think his dependence on seeking the will of God is a big part of that.

And think about how much we love to hear from our own children about their day—what went well, what they didn’t enjoy, what they learned. We hang on every word because we love them and we want to be part of their lives. God wants the same thing from us in prayer. It doesn’t matter if it seems petty, it doesn’t matter if you think it’s the wrong way to pray—just pray. When we first learned to speak and when we first learned to write, our sentences weren’t Shakespeare. They weren’t long and eloquent with large vocabulary and perfect grammar. They were broken. They were hard to understand. But the good thing is, unlike us, God understands. He knows what you mean. He knows what you can’t even articulate. Paul tells us about prayer that can’t even come out in words—just groanings (Romans 8:26 – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”). God knows. He understands. He sees inside us. So you don’t have to be some prayer master before you can start praying. Just pray. Mastery comes with experience, and experience comes by doing. And unlike most things where gaining experience is either expensive, painful, or embarrassing, there’s none of that with God. It’s private between you and Him, and there’s no need to be ashamed or embarrassed.

I’m not talking about offerings in a basket—this isn’t a prosperity gospel message. There’s an allowance for doing those chores. It’s not a couple of quarters that you spend at the school store for a Tootsie Roll or a Capri Sun. No, they last with you into eternity. Sometimes there are rewards here and now. He supplies our every need whether we realize it or not (Philippians 4:19 – “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”). Sometimes He even supplies our wants, as long as those are the things that are actually best for us if we love Him. He gives us our air, food, water—all our physical needs. He literally holds us together. Scripture tells us we consist through Him, and that’s a fancy way of saying we stay together and exist (Colossians 1:17 – “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”).

Not even better—His chores aren’t like ours. It’s not like washing dishes because they’re dirty or taking the garbage out so the house isn’t cluttered. It’s more like Him letting you play a part and giving that same gift that you’ve received to others around you—spreading His gospel to those who’ve never heard it, showing His love to those that need it most, whether that’s helping a neighbor when they need it most, sharing a meal with someone who needs it, having a Bible study with your neighbors, or sometimes showing that love and your thankfulness really is doing dishes. There may be some leftovers from breakfast if you’re feeling a little convicted.

That’s my main point: If you’re here, I assume you’re saved, but that’s not the finish line. It’s the starting point from an eternal perspective. Absolutely nothing you did before that point matters—no sins; they’re thrown into the sea of forgetfulness (Micah 7:19 – “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”). The only things that’ll make it with you are the things that you do through Him, by Him, and for Him.

Now, whether you die or are raptured out eventually, all of us are going to see Him face-to-face and be judged for what we’ve done here—not for our sins (He’s paid for that), but for how well we ran our course (2 Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”). Now, I expect no matter how diligent we are—even if you’re like Paul and you show up—you probably will still have regrets. How much worse will it be when you finally are there and you see eternity and you realize how little you did when it counted?

Paul lists gifts Christians have and can give: teaching, prophecy, healing, giving, caring (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 28; Ephesians 4:11). I can’t tell you what your gifts are. I can’t tell you what your calling is. I can’t tell you what works He’s asking you to do. That’s between you and the Lord. If you want to find out what you’re called to be doing, the only way that’s gonna happen is if you talk to Him in prayer, you speak to Him in prayer, and seek His words in the Bible. More than that will have to wait for another time.

(Word count now: ≈2,460 words. At a moderate speaking rate of 135–145 wpm, this should take about **17–18 minutes** to deliver, including natural pauses for emphasis.)