Child-like faith gives access to God's kingdom

FOOD FOR THOUGHT by Howard Stone, minister of Castletown and Community Free Church

The restrictions and guidelines regarding Covid keep changing. As the national situation seems to be improving, the ban on outdoor events – which stopped the traditional Hogmanay celebrations – has been lifted. However, if you want to attend a large, unseated event, you’re still going to need a “Covid passport”. You’ll require proof that you have had all your jags. No passport, no entry.

Jesus has given us the requirement for entry into the kingdom of God – we must become like little children. If we want to know God and experience his love in our lives then, like children, we will humbly believe what he says and trust him to care for us. Small children simply believe what they are told. Santa does bring presents every year. The tooth-fairy really does swap baby teeth for money. That’s what adults say, so it’s true! And hold a child by the hand and he will go wherever you lead him – so we warn youngsters of the danger of strangers.

God honours that same sort of trusting dependence. To enter his kingdom, God does not set a high moral standard that we must attain – we’d never achieve that, anyway – but rather he requires a simple belief in what he has told us. He has revealed that he exists, that Jesus is his Son, that Jesus died on a Roman cross but, three days later, returned to life to live forever and that he is going to come back to this world in glory. None of these things can be proved. However, those who, like a child, humbly accept God’s message to be true, are given entry into the Lord’s everlasting kingdom.

Are you – by child-like faith – in God’s kingdom?

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