Child-likeness

What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. Galatians 4:1-2

In Israel, Children are only a little better than slaves. They have no rights to themselves nor authority over others. Have little knowledge or experience that they can boast about. Have little or no possessions that they can call their own. Yet, a child's joy is not determined by these things.

As we grow older in life, we begin to amass great wealth, much biblical and secular knowledge; and begin to lead or have authority over other people. Despite it all, we must never forget to maintain our child-likeness before God.

Being the child in this context mean to be humble, reliant and always hungry for his father's attention and love. A child's joy is not determined by possessions or status. A child is secure and joyful in the faithfulness and unfailing love of his father.

Humility has great emphasis in this context. A child has absolutely no knowledge or life experience to boast or be confident in, whereas an adult may have learnt and gone through more in life. However, certain lesson we learn in life hinder the truth of God because they come from our understanding of the world. Worldly truth may not always be Godly truths. Jesus calls us all to reduce our confidence in our knowledge and experiences to that of a little child, so that in doing so, we may have a soft heart to accept Godly truth. In John 3, He calls Nicodemus to be "Born again" for this very reason - the Pharisee needed to "Reboot" and trash all of his life's knowledge in order to gain the kingdom of heaven.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

The bible says that the Gospel is a foolish concept to many and contradicts human wisdom. How could an almighty God be killed or even crucified? It takes uncompromising faith and humility to accept such a notion as our core belief. Thus the saying, unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Many of us have grown up strong in God and mighty in our careers. We've accumulated much more wealth than we've ever had when we were children. We've grown even greater in knowledge and experiences. But let's not forget what it means to be that child before God again.

If God doesn't fulfill your dreams or hold off to give you the desires of your heart, will you still come back to the place of a little child, to love him, trust him and give him praise for who he is in your life rather than the things and circumstances he's yet to provide or unfold for you?

Will you allow God to reduce you to a little child, so that he can reshape and transform your understanding and reveal his truth into your hearts?

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Matthew 18 : 2-5