HAVE FAITH!

I have a clear memory, from when I was young and in Sunday School, of me and my friends stomping on the floor to “get back at the devil”. We used to make fun of him too, and in retrospect it probably didn’t do anything, but it made us feel like we were doing something- like we had played some bigger part in the battle of good and evil. 

Children have such a pure way of looking at the world, and such an innocent trust of whatever their parents tell them. I believe this is what Jesus was trying to get at in Matthew 18:3-4, when he tells us to become like little children so we can enter the kingdom of Heaven. The Amplified version of this verse adds onto this idea by saying that children [are trusting, humble, and forgiving.] I can look back at those simple times and think, how we had such trust that our efforts were doing something. And who knows? Maybe we were. Maybe every time we “stomped on the devil”, we were actually doing some damage because of our belief. 

God wants our unwavering belief, just like little children. But somewhere along the way, we become jaded, and we can lose that full trust in God. Somewhere along the way, we stop believing in our power over the enemy and stop believing that God can come through for us. Somehow, we stop thinking that God is enough. It can be slow and gradual, without even realizing or it can come about as a result of some traumatic event. Life and reality start to creep in, and news reports from the world and stories from those around us can overwhelm us. So, it can be hard to have that pure faith when we are faced with the ugly truths of living in this fallen world. 

But fortunately, God knows that. He asks us to start small in Luke 17:6, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you!”. It can be hard to ask God for the big things, the things that we don’t even dare to hope for. But God also wants us to trust Him for the little things. And if we can give him that childlike faith even in the small things, we can learn to trust Him with much more. 

So even if you aren’t completely confident that stomping on the devil yields real results, there is still a lesson to be learned from that pure belief that children have. Trust in God with your whole heart, and your faith can move mountains.  

~Nia Roberts