Hinder Not

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

HINDER NOT

Matt 19:13-15

13 Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. 14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

NIV

Once again, we are told the kingdom of God belongs to those little children. We are aware that unless we changed and become like a child, we will not enter the kingdom of God. We have considered this more than once and we are convinced that Jesus meant that we should not try to return to our childhood, but rather have that kind of innocent faith that children have in their parents. Here Jesus tells his disciples and us, that we should not hinder those who have that kind of child-like faith. The question would be as to how could we hinder them? What would be a cause of hindering someone who believes so fully and innocently in Jesus? Could this idea of knowledge be an issue? There is a whole array of sources of knowledge many of which are associated with education, such as all the seminaries, bible colleges, including a veritable plethora of commentaries and other reference materials available for personal study, and then we have the all-knowing internet where we can find more knowledge. Could all those who avail themselves of such resources unwillingly, or perhaps willingly promote knowledge as the end-all to having faith, or gaining access to the truth about the kingdom of God? Jesus says that may not be important at all, but rather that we simply look to God as his children, with that innocent faith of children, who humble themselves before their parents as in being completely dependent upon them for every aspect of their lives, especially their daily bread, which sustains their life. When we pray as Jesus taught us to pray, we include that phrase, give us this day our daily bread, but do we really mean it, is the question. Most of us simply go to the store to buy our daily bread, so why then do we ask Jesus for it? This prayer has to bring us into the right relationship with our Lord, in that we must change and become like a child in our faith, just believing that Jesus sustains our life, for He is the bread of life. He has plainly said, “I am the bread of life”. He said that he is the bread of life that came down from heaven, just as God provided manna from heaven for the Jews in years past. He said the is the living bread, and if we eat of this bread, we will not die, but that we will live forever. All the education in the world, all the knowledge we can store up for ourselves here on this earth cannot change the fact that all we need is to become like a child and look to our parent, our heavenly Father, for our daily bread. Our daily dose of faith in Jesus. Let us not let our faith be hindered by anything or anyone.