GlobalChristians

Eternity 47 - Tough Toddlers

Psalms 8:2 ASV Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established strength, Because of thine adversaries, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Psalms 8:2 CEV With praises from children and from tiny infants, you have built a fortress. It makes your enemies silent, and all who turn against you are left speechless.

The child-like worshipers shall be the conquerers, God will use them in mighty ways and they will still all the enemies of God. Without going into a lot of Hebrew, the words "babes and sucklings" can also be used metaphorically to refer to the innocent and childlike and those without natural strength.

In the temple it was applied literally as the children cried out Hosanna - the victory cry of the Messiah entering Jerusalem. Since then it has been those who have entered the Kingdom as a "little child" that have been God's warriors and where He has "established strength" and made His power known.

In referring to being "babes and sucklings" am not saying that we should be void of content, or helpless or foolishly naive. Many of the greatest men and women of God have been strong, capable and eventually well-educated (many learned on the job). Most have made much of the value of books, of enterprise and of God-submitted human hard work.

Yet towards God they remained children. In our worship we are to step out of the realm of our responsibilities and into the realm of relationship and to be those who cry out "Abba Father" and who have the Spirit of sonship. (Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6). In our work we are to be strong, but in our worship we are to be "weak" and receptive before the Presence of God, without guile and unassuming.

We are simply not equal to God. He was there in Eternity far before we were born, He is vast and wise. It is right that we should worship Him and right that we should love Him and right that we should sense our dependence on Him.

Yet we are not to move in the fear and trembling of the OT regard of YHWH. For we have not received a spirit of fear - but a spirit of sonship. We are to realise that God's love is all around us and in Christ His love is total and profound and safe. Once this is certain and believed we can move into a relationship and a mode of worship that is very similar to the trusting love that a child has for his or her Father.

Worldy, cunning, calculating Christians bring no glory to God though they may, through various means accumulate great wealth and power and even use some of it for good purposes.

God is not glorified in the shrewd. He is glorified in the lambs sent out amidst wolves and the "babes in the woods" that Christians so often are.

I am, at times, quite a naive person and yet God has , at various times. used me in high places. In such arenas I cause genuine bewilderment that one with my temperament should "survive". That I can "blunder through" without paying bribes or being dishonest or even playing games.

I should be "eaten" but am marvelously preserved by the hand of God and can deal with businessmen and politicians without an ounce of fear. This is the miracle of the "tough toddler", the "babe and suckling" that silences the enemy and brings praise to God. The glorious and astounding wonder of the utterly God-dependent and fearless child of God who just goes anywhere with Jesus.

Blessings,

John Edmiston