Childlike Faith – Walking In Power with Nate Ortiz

Everyone, I just want to take a moment to talk about what it is to have child-like faith.

In Matthew 18, Jesus challenges us to come to him as a child.

And I think there's something about what we grow as we become as we're children and we grow

to be adults and we have our own families or whatever that might look like for you.

There's this idea that life just becomes so much more complicated, right?

There's things that are going on, there's spouse, you know, things with our spouse or

just things with, you know, some were dating or whatever it might be.

They have children, then you have life, then you have work, then you have friends,

you have things.

And life just becomes much more complicated than it was when we were children.

And I just want to just share this idea and this thought that, you know, I heard it

quote before, but it talks about being, you know, simplicity is the greatest luxury that

we can have in this life, that we can wake up in the morning, that we can have this confidence

in how we live our life and the things that we set in place in the stands that we hold

for ourselves.

Now, we understand that life will not be perfect, it won't be easy, but we understand that

we have set our ways to be not just the ways of the world, but the ways of Christ, the

ways of the faith that are laid out in scriptures.

It's the moments that we begin to take matters into our own hands, or we begin to really

think about how can I make this situation better for me or how can I make this feeling

in my heart and my mind just go away quickly.

And I think for us, as we think about our faith, what are the things that God is saying?

You need to have some childlike faith.

You need to just step back, not feel like you have to control everything, not have your

hands and everything, not make things more complicated in life.

Life is complicated enough, but what can we do?

And always, I feel like there's this big difference from when we are child-ish and we

are child-like.

Now it's always really interesting when you meet someone who's a grown adult and as acting

child-ish, where nothing's there fault and they don't like to share and they don't

like to admit they're wrong, but they just like to operate in that place.

God doesn't call us to operate and be childish because it's a childlike.

When you come across a child who is regulated and is growing in all the right ways, there's

this idea that when they understand how to share, how great does that feel when your kids

learn how to share?

Or how does it feel when you feel like they're learning the proper manners, when

they're saying please and thank you and they're not demanding?

There's a ease that you feel with this child or how they are with other children.

And God calls us to be like that in this life.

We don't walk through this life saying, well it's hard for me to share or it's hard for

me to forgive this person or I'm going to pout, I'm going to sit in the corner, I'm not

going to play.

But Jesus calls for so much more than that.

And so in the same way, God our Heavenly Father, when He looks at our life, He addresses

us the way He knows that we need addressed.

I have three boys and they are all so different.

You can speak one way to one, another to another and to the third one another way.

Each of them are individual.

It wouldn't be great if you spoke one way to all of them and they just responded.

But each receive encouragement different.

They each receive discipline different.

And God in our own lives, He understands where they receive discipline, the way He speaks

to us.

Now I've seen believers get upset and feel like, man, it seems like this person can do no

wrong or it feels like they've done more wrong than I've done and nothing seems to happen

to them.

But the reality is God is looking out for everyone.

But God knows exactly what we need when we need it.

So there's times where we may feel like there's things just coming against us.

But God is for us.

God is with us and He's going to walk you through it.

But you have to understand you can't compare how God disciplines you or how God speaks

to you and comparison to someone else.

You need to say, Lord, help me to lean into what you're saying and to what you're doing.

So I have to put it like this.

Jesus will be gracious in this tone but directly in his instruction.

Jesus always grace gracious in this tone towards us.

That it's always going to be love.

It's going to be encouraging.

It's going to be empowering.

But He is going to be very direct in His instructions.

So when Jesus talks about He is the way of the truth in life or Jesus talks about what sin

is in the Bible, He's very direct about it.

He doesn't make provisions for like, well, it's okay in this time and this time it's not

okay.

He's very direct in that.

And that's why for us, we have to be people who are just really sensitive to what His

Word says and what it's speaking to us.

And so our spiritual maturity and not being childish but being childlike, our spiritual

maturity becomes evident over time, over our consistency.

And we say all the time that Jesus would rather have our long-term consistency than our

short-term intensity.

But it's not just about this idea of, you know, can I just will God's approval in my life.

There's nothing we can do to gain His approval.

There's nothing we can do to lose His approval.

It's if we choose to stay in that place.

So when I say there's nothing to stay in the place with Him.

So I say there's nothing we can do to lose His approval.

It's not saying what we can do whatever we want, right?

There's consequences for every decision we make.

My father who I love very much and have a great relationship with him and he loves me,

right?

There's a decision that I can make that would, his love wouldn't be able to eliminate

the consequences in my life.

Every decision you make in this life is a consequence.

It's good and bad.

So even if you say, well, you know, I thought there's not I could lose God's love.

No, there's nothing.

But there's consequences, decisions that you make to things that are set in order in

this world, in this universe overall.

So you have to be mindful of that.

So I encourage you to think about your life.

When areas feel very complicated and just difficult, ask yourself, how can we become more

child-like?

How can I pull back?

How can I say God, help me with this situation?

And the same way a kid goes to their parents and says, hey, this toy isn't working or this

isn't going right.

Can you help me?

God wants us to do that with him.

You don't have to figure everything out.

You definitely don't have that childish, which you have to be child-like in your faith

journey.

I appreciate you all.

Love you.

I hope you have an amazing day.