With a Subtitle: But not to be naive to the truth of who He is.

A brief Excerpt: The article stresses childlike faith in God, trusting His presence and control, exemplified by Jesus calming the storm for the apostles.

The Author is: Klaus Meyer

Jesus said that we must become as little children, or we will not be able to enter into the kingdom of God. He did not mean the silliness of little children, nor their ignorance (1 Corinthians 3:2). What Jesus meant is that we must become as trusting as little children; we must have the infinite faith in God that little children have in their parents.

When little children get scared, they immediately run into the embrace of their mother and will no longer panic, even if the mother cannot change the situation. But they trust their mom or dad to be with them in this scary situation and to go through it with them.

Matthew 8:23-26 - And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Was Jesus saying that the disciples should have been calming the storm when He talked about their lack of faith? No, He talked about “running into the arms” of our heavenly Father to comfort us and prevent us from panicking. Then they could have assessed the situation calmly and looked at their options. One of the first options was to wake up Jesus and tell Him what was happening, but without panic, knowing that God had everything under control.

Jesus told us that the kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:21), that He will always be with us, and that He will never leave us (Matthew 28:20). We need to learn to trust that all these things are true, that they are real. Then we will be able to enter the kingdom of Heaven that IS right here, within us, but which we cannot enter unless we become as little children (Mark 10:15), trusting our Heavenly Father.