What it takes to enter the Kingdom of God

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

WHAT IT TAKES TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Luke 18:15-17

15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 

NIV

This is the same as Jesus taught that Matthew recorded that we will not enter the kingdom of God unless we change and become like a little child. Luke records it a little differently, but the truth is the same. Unless we receive the kingdom of God like a little child, we will never enter it. We cannot go back and be a child, losing all the intelligence that we use to spread the good news about the kingdom of God. It doesn’t mean we have to lose the abilities we trained for or the education we struggled to obtain. However, it does mean to have child-like faith that we need to enter the kingdom of God. Children are innocent, and totally dependent on their parents for everything. What child can support themselves by laboring for their needs? This faith like a child means we must depend on God for all we are, all we have, and all we do. If we think we are who we are because of our efforts to achieve our goals. It is God who began this work in us, and it is God who will complete it. Some would use that to only mean our salvation, and then the rest of all of who we are in this world is because of that amount of education, training, and experience we gain on the job, so to speak, that makes us the person we are. But it is God who began everything and supplies everything. He said that we are not to worry about what we eat or drink, the clothes we have, and all the stuff we need, like the pagans run after, but if we become like a child and seek first the kingdom of God, he will give all the stuff to us, supply us with all the training and skills we need to serve him how he determines. This also includes all we have. Sure we can claw our way into this world, beat the doors down to climb to the top, so we can have more money to buy all the stuff we could ever want. But God said that we are not supposed to look to ourselves for fulfilling our desires, but to look to Him and he would see to it we have enough of the stuff that pagans run, and claw their way in the world it get. Child-like faith. As far as all we do, that is also up to the Lord, for again we can struggle our way through using all our skills, training, education, and whatever we think we have, to do the work of the Lord, or as having child-like faith, we can look to the Lord our God, who sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to work His influence that enables us to do what God desires for us to do and achieve. Just as a parent teaches a child to ride a bicycle, the Spirit trains and teaches us how to serve the Lord and do all we do. It all boils down to having faith like a child.