Maturing into Childlikeness

Recently I wrote a short article about maturing into childlikeness that I'd like to post here. This is such an important reality in our lives, and I believe that at the core of becoming more childlike is the virtue of self-acceptance. In other words, it's as we fully accept who God has made us that we become less self-conscious and can increasingly forget ourselves in a healthy way.

So I share this short article with you this week with the prayer that the grace and power of the Holy Spirit will increase in each of our lives so that we increasingly enjoy the freedom and spontaneity that is ours when we forget ourselves in Christ. God bless you this week!

Maturing into Childlikeness
“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.” Matthew 18:2-4 (Amplified)

Though we commonly look at maturity in Christ as growing up into adulthood (Ephesians 4:13-15; Col. 1:28,29), I want to look at maturing in Him as growing up into childlikeness; the more we mature in Him, the more the characteristics of childlikeness abound in us.

There are many wonderful characteristics of a healthy child, such as being emotionally alive, spiritually sensitive, teachable, trusting, hopeful, loving and receiving love, forgiving, not self-conscious, etc. The one I want to focus on here is the lack of self-consciousness, which I will refer to as self-forgetfulness.
Maturing into childlikeness, particularly self-forgetfulness, is only possible in the Child Jesus (Isaiah 9:6). Luke says “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom…” (Luke 2:40). Later in Acts 4:30 Luke makes reference to God doing wonders in the name of His holy Child Jesus.

In the process of maturing into full manhood, Jesus did not outgrow the virtues of childlikeness; those virtues carried over into His manhood, making Him the most attractive and appealing Man that has walked the earth. Unlike Jesus, our own sin, compounded by the sin of others against us, has robbed us of the virtues of childlikeness, making us self-conscious adults who over-analyze and dissect ourselves and others to the point of not being able to receive freely of God’s life and love. I believe a part of maturing in Him for us means to gain back these virtues, including that of self-forgetfulness and the spontaneity that accompanies it.

To regain what we have lost, we must:
1. Acknowledge how far as a Church culture we are from childlikeness, particularly in the west where rationalism has split our heart from our head and we’ve lost the art of being still to listen and receive truth with the simplicity and faith of a child.
2. Then we must repent of personal sin that has distorted our view of receiving truth, receive God’s forgiveness and fresh filling of His Spirit;
3. We must also forgive the sins of others against us, sins from our distant past and sins of the present, and receive healing for the wounds of our soul;
4. Finally, in order to continue to mature in self-forgetfulness, we must cultivate a lifestyle of practicing the childlike virtue of listening and receiving freely from God then obeying whatever He tells us to do. This practice will begin to tenderize our “immature, self-conscious adult” hearts and empower us to be still and hear the affirming voice of the heavenly Father. It was in His Father’s affirmation of Him that Jesus, the divine Child, could mature into manhood properly, obey the Father, and through His obedience to His Father’s will reproduce His likeness in those who trust in Him.

In a wonderful fantasy story by George MacDonald, the wise woman, who is the Christ figure of the story, is depicted in one place in the story as a child:
“…as Rosamond looked, the child began, like the flower, to grow larger. Quickly through every gradation of growth she passed, until she stood before her a woman perfectly beautiful, neither old nor young; for hers was the old age of everlasting youth.”

Holy Spirit of Jesus, come and save us from immature adulthood; forgive our sin and heal us of those wounds we carry because of sins of others against us; take us to the Father through the Son to hear His affirming voice that calls us into mature childlikeness so that we stand as full adults, “perfectly beautiful, neither old nor young,” free to forget ourselves in worship of You and in ministry to others.

Coldheartedness

Knowing God and growing in the knowledge of His love and affections is the greatest experience a human can have!

Because of the times we live in and the increase of stress and pressure, the believer in Jesus must be encountering His love ongoingly in order to walk through our days with a tender and warm heart. Coldheartedness is a common malady among God's people, and I believe that it comes (at least in great part) because of allowing little offenses to accumulate. Little by little our hearts get callous, and it's usually so gradual that we aren't aware that we are getting hardened.

I recently was with a group of Korean missionary trainees in Vancouver, and as I was in prayer and waiting on the Lord before meeting with them, the cry arose in my heart: "Lord, help me never speak of you with a cold and dull heart!"

Because I am increasingly aware of how easy it is to grow cold in my love for God (and consequently for others as well), I make it a practice to intentionally take time to allow the Holy Spirit to search me and show me any little (or big) issue that has transpired in my life that I need to ask forgiveness for or that I need to forgive someone for.

If done with regularity, this doesn't have to take a lot of time.

The Lord bless you and cause His face (smile) to shine on you this week! He longs to show you His affections for you...in that place of knowing we are always loved by Him, no matter what, we will be empowered to speak of Him with burning hearts!

Holy Spirit, You Who burn with passion for Jesus, come and keep our hearts warm and tender toward God so that when we speak of Him, others will want Him. Thank You that You can do this and that You love to do it!

Purging Fire of Love

This week as I was meditating on a part of Psalm 50 (verse 3)- while at the same time meditating on the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John (chapter 14) - the Holy Spirit gave me a prayer that blended the two portions together.

There is a phrase in John 14:30 that has inspired an ongoing prayer for myself for many years:

"...the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me..."

The Amplified Bible says it this way: "...he has no claim on Me. (He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.)"

What a wonderful testimony to be able to give, and my desire is that the work and power of the Spirit to purge and heal me will result in this reality being increasingly true of me, to whatever degree possible in this life.

So as I was pondering Psalm 50 alongside that statement of Jesus in John 14, the Spirit quickened verse 3:

"Our God comes and does not keep silence; a fire devours before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest rages.""

It is the devouring fire that goes before Him that burns up all that is in common with the enemy of my soul and that purges all in me that still belongs to the enemy's ways; as I draw near to this "Devouring Fire" and "Mighty Tempest", He will aggressively go after that which is not of His kingdom and heart and ways. In the presence of this One, I find out how much He loves me and under the empowerment of that unrelenting love, I obey the little things He asks of me. Little by little, my loving response of obedience cooperates with the devouring fire that He is, and those areas that either subtly or blatantly are aligned with the world, the flesh, and the devil are being consumed and blown away.

Holy Spirit, come and draw us to the Father's burning heart; strengthen us to wait before this consuming, devouring Fire and give us a holy determination to obey whatever He says to us. You alone can see and burn up that which is not of the life of Jesus - may we increasingly be able to say with Him and in Him:

"He has no claim on Me."