Day 19: Jesus Thanks The Father
for Revealing Life to the Childlike
11When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 13Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13
In today’s Scripture, we see maturity contrasted with “childish things.” Here we do NOT want to emulate what is stated in the way of being like a child, because it is the negative—the childish, rather than the childlike. The Apostle Paul tells us that when he was a child he spoke, thought and reasoned as a child. Paul means that he spoke, thought and reasoned in an immature manner. When we’re children we can’t think problems through the way we can when we’re older. We can’t reason at a mature level and so we make many false assumptions. We assume that our mother “hates” us if she won’t let us do what we want to do—even if what we want to do is harmful to us. We assume that our father is “stupid,” if he doesn’t think the way we do on a matter, even though he has lived for decades longer than we have at the time. Paul makes it clear that as we grow and mature, we put away childish things. We don’t stop being childlike in the sense Jesus talks about—trusting, humble, willing to follow the commands of Jesus. We stop throwing tantrums when we don’t get our own way. We stop trying to “be boss” in every situation, recognizing that our knowledge is partial, and that only God deserves to be in control. When we gain this level of living; trusting in God and acknowledging the role of faith, hope and love in our lives, then we can be truly grateful! When we get to this point an attitude of gratitude is a reasonable expectation. We are investing this week in considering the positive and negative aspects of being children, because Jesus used them in His ministry to make us aware of what it means to be suited for the Kingdom of God. May our lives today reflect that childlikeness that suits us for life with Him!
Questions and Comments for Reflection and Action:
What “childish” characteristics to you need to turn over to God right now, so that you may become more like Jesus?
Take some time in prayer right now, to turn those things over and to ask Jesus to fill you with true childlikeness!