Why Do You Trust a 3 year old with
Your Life, Your Health, Your Safety,
and Your Salvation?

   By Lorraine Day, M.D.



“Without Faith (Trust), it is impossible to please God.  For he that cometh to God must believe that He is (He exists), and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6

 

Unless we trust God completely, we cannot please Him.  Everyone who comes to God must believe that He is – that God actually exists – and that He will reward those who diligently seek Him – meaning that we must believe that God WILL do what He has already promised to do – heal all our diseases, give us a long life, protect us, and save us.

“A child’s awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother.  In that same way, we are to “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.

“If we have that continual awareness, nothing else can get into our lives – not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries.  And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying.  How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us?”  Chambers, Oswald, My Utmost for His Highest, June 2.

If a 3 year old boy is pushed around by a bully in the neighborhood, he comes running home crying to his mother.  His mother will assure him she will go right down the block and take care of it.

The 3 year-old boy does not worry about it anymore because he knows his mother will do as she has promised.  He runs off to play, leaving the problem in the hands of his mother, and never worries another minute because he trusts in his mother’s promise and ability.

That is the way we are to trust in God.

If we don’t trust God in that way, we cannot please God.

The 3 year old rests calmly in the assurance of his mother’s ability and her promise.  He does not, immediately after talking to his mother about the problem, then go to his 3 year-old friend next door, asking him to take care of the problem.  Absolutely not – because he trusts his mother – rather than another child his own age, who he knows can do nothing to solve the problem.  He understands, even at the age of 3, that another 3 year-old is not capable of having the knowledge, experience, or ability to do what his mother can do.

Yet every day, hundreds of thousands of Christians trust the “3 year old boy next door” for their life, their health, their safety and their salvation, rather than trusting their heavenly Father.  They pray to God, telling him about the problems of their life, or their health, or their safety, or their salvation – all of which God has promised to solve – yet they turn to “man” for all of these things: doctors for their life and health, themselves (self-defense) or the police or the government for their safety, and pastors and churches for their salvation. 

Yet God has promised to take care of ALL these problems.  But Christians don’t believe God’s promises.

Instead, they choose to believe in “man” and not God.  After they have told God the problem – the God of the Universe who knows ALL and can solve ALL problems, they immediately go to “man” – to doctors, or pastors, or psychiatrists, or counselors, or the government, or even their friends and family – for their life, health, their safety, or their salvation.

They say they trust in God – but they really trust in “man.”  They say they trust God, but instead of being as smart as the 3 year-old in our illustration above, they don’t trust their heavenly Father.  Instead, they trust in another human being who has no more wisdom than they do.

Instead of trusting their heavenly Father who created their body, who can show them how to get well, who has promised to protect them, who has promised to save them, they trust in “man.”

“If any man come to Me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”  Luke 14:26

Jesus did not literally mean “hate” as we may interpret it in our era because Jesus says, “I’m NOT like you.”

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts (higher) than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8,9

Jesus is telling us that we must turn our back on the advice of family, friends, and human beings we perceive as “experts” in various areas, and instead we must cling to the Lord, and follow HIS ways – not “man’s” ways, because:

“The wisdom of this world (of “man”) is foolishness with God.”  1 Corinthians 3:19

Yet, I can’t count the times that a person with cancer or some other life-threatening disease has said to me, “I know I should follow God’s way, but my children (or my husband, or my wife, or my mother and father, etc.) don’t want me to do that.”

Why aren’t adult Christians as smart and perceptive as a 3 year-old child?

The child’s mother is much more able to solve the problems of her 3 year old son than is the 3 year old child next door.  Yet God is far superior to every human being (including doctors, pastors and government officials, as well as friends and family) than the mother is to her 3 year-old son.

In spite of this, human beings choose to trust “man” (the equivalent of trusting a 3 year-old child next door) while deluding themselves into thinking they are trusting God.

Trusting God as a child

Jesus said,

“And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them; and His disciples rebuked those that brought them.

“But when Jesus saw it, He was very displeased, and said unto them, ‘Allow the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.’

“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, He shall not enter therein.”  Mark 10:13-15

“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 18:3

Yet we worry, we fret, we plan, we scheme, we try to solve our own problems.  We believe that “God helps those who help themselves.”  But that cliché is NOT in the Bible.  It is a quote from Benjamin Franklin, a member of the degenerate “Hell-fire” club in England – today’s equivalent of the present-day Freemason/Illuminati crowd.

But in reality, God helps those who cannot help themselves.  God helps those who finally recognize that they cannot solve their own problems.  God helps those who finally have come to the end of themselves, who finally understand that they cannot run their own life and that they need God to run their life for them, those who finally are willing to give up their right to themselves and give it over to God.

Only those who are willing to trust God - like a 3 year-old child trusts his own mother or father – shall “enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

“For ye are all the children of God, by faith (trust – belief) in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3:26

The words faith, trust, and belief in English are all the same word in the Greek (pistos or pistis, #4102 and 4103 in Strong’s Concordance).

A 3 year-old child has complete trust in his parent.  That is the way God asks us to trust – have faith in – Him.  God gave us children and families so we could experience the trust of a child first-hand so we could thoroughly understand what God expects of us.  But it is a lesson that has escaped almost every Christian.

Humility

“Whosoever shall therefore humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Matt 18:4

Wisdom

After Jesus rebuked the cities in which He had done so many might works, yet they repented not, He said:

“And thou, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hades (the grave): for if the mighty works which have been done in you, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

“But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes.

The “wise and prudent” to whom Jesus is referring represents the “wisdom” of the world, “which is foolishness with God.”  Instead, God has chosen to “reveal these things unto ‘babes” – those who are meek and lowly in heart and who trust God as a young child trusts his or her parents.

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain (futile).  

“Therefore, let no man glory in men.”  1 Corinthians 3:19,21

How can any Christian “glory” in the “wisdom” of humanity – to trust “man” to do the things that God has PROMISED to do – including:

“heal ALL our diseases”

“He forgives ALL our sin and heals ALL our diseases. .”  Ps 103:3

but ONLY if we follow HIS way and not “man’s” way,

“Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statues and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

“Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He sware unto thy fathers; . . .

“And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee;” Deut 7:11-15

give us a long and happy life

“O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever (for the eons.)”  Deut 5:29

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”  Exodus 20:12

watch over our safety,

“I will lie down in peace and sleep, for though I am alone, O Lord, You will keep me safe.”  Psalm 4:8

“But all who listen to Me shall live in peace and safety, unafraid.”  Prov 1:33

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.  Whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  Psalm 27:1

Direct our life

“O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.:  Jeremiah 10:23

“In all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:6

Give us wisdom

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, without reproach: and it shall be give him.

“But let him ask in faith (trust), not doubting.  For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed

“For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”  James 1:5-8

“Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, that you do not know.”  Jeremiah 33:3

Reveal the Father to us (the true character of God)

Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.

All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.  Matthew 11:23-27

Give us rest from our troubles

“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart; an you shall find rest for your souls.

“For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

Open our eyes so we can see our life and the world from God’s point of view, and understand God’s Word.

Before Christ’s death He told the disciples that they were unable, at that time, to understand all the things He needed to share with them.

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.

“Howbeit when he, the breath (not “Spirit) of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth (referring to God’s breath of holiness – the life of Christ exhibited in us . . .”  John 16:12,13

It was at Pentecost, after the disciples had been through the terrible trial of the death of Christ on the Cross, followed by the glory of His resurrection, and then their fifty days of study in the Upper Room, that God gave them His “breath of holiness” (mistranslated “Holy Spirit”) that allowed them to understand Scripture and to see the events in the world from God’s point of view.

After Christ was resurrected, just before He ascended into heaven, He told His disciples:

“. . .Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power (strength or authority) from on high.”  Luke 24:49

Why were they to “tarry”?  To wait until they were endued with “power” from on high – the strength and authority that comes from finally understanding the Scriptures from God’s point of view. 

For fifty days they studied together in the upper room, and then finally they were given the ability to understand the Scriptures, to understand the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection, to understand what they had NOT understood before Christ’s death, and to become grounded in the Word, to have no fear of the future, to understand the Scriptures from a Spiritual view point rather than by “sense knowledge” – by the use of the five senses only.

God wants us to have “revelation knowledge” – spiritual understanding – not just “sense knowledge” understanding.

“The natural man (the soulish – unspiritual man – the man who understands only with his five senses) receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know (understand) them, because they (spiritual things) are spiritually discerned (understood).” 1 Corinthians 2:14

The disciples were told to “tarry” in order to study diligently and receive God’s “breath of holiness” (mistranslated “Holy Spirit”) that would give them eonian life – the life of Christ in us – so they could exhibit the character of God and understand His Word.

The disciples were not allowed to “go and tell” the Good News of Jesus Christ - - - until they understood what the Good News really was, until they understood the true character of Jesus Christ.

Many Christians are anxious to share the Gospel (which literally means Good News) BEFORE they even understand what the Gospel is.

The word “Gospel” literally means Good News.  How could it be Good News for the world if the majority of the world’s population (for the last 6,000 years) will burn in hell forever?

That is NOT “Good News.”  That is horrible news!

But Christians regularly take that false “Gospel” to the whole world, claiming that God is a loving God, but that He has no problem burning forever, in hot flames, the majority of all His children that He has ever created!

Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables?

“And the disciples came and said unto Him, Why do you speak unto them in parables?

“He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries (hidden truths) of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

“For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has.

“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because they seeing, see not: and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand.

“And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.

Only when we have God’s character and disposition in us will we be truly able to understand His Word.

“For this people’s heart has grown dull and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should become converted, and I would heal them.

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.  Matthew 13:10-16

 

“All these things Jesus spoke unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable he did not speak unto them.

“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”  Matthew 13:34,35

Here is a perfect example of the disciples’ inability to understand Spiritual things.

“And when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven (yeast – Fermentation symbolized sin) of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

“And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.

“Which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them, O ye of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves, because you have brought no bread?

“Do you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves (with which I fed) the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?  (Don’t you remember that I recently fed 15,000 people, including women and children, with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, and still there were 12 baskets of bread left over?)

“Neither the seven loaves (with which I fed) the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?  (Don’t you remember that I recently fed 12,000 people, including women and children, with 7 loaves and a few fish, and there were 7 baskets of bread left over?”)

Jesus was saying, “Don’t you understand that I can give you physical bread whenever I want.  But I’m not referring to physical bread.  I’m speaking of spiritual, leavened (sinful) “bread” – specifically, the false teachings of the Pharisees.

“How is it that you do not understand that I spoke not to you concerning bread (Jesus said, “I was NOT talking to you about physical bread – but spiritual bread), that you should beware of the leaven (yeast – sin) of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

“Then they (finally) understood how that He bade them not to beware of the leaven of (physical) bread, but (to beware) of the doctrines (spiritually false teachings) of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.  Matthew 16:5-12

An example of Old Testament Israel’s inability to understand Spiritual things.

“O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your faithfulness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.  (Your faithfulness vanishes rapidly, just as the morning dew.)

“Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and the judgments are on you as the light that goes forth.

For I have desired faithfulness, and NOT sacrifice (rituals): and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings (rituals).”  Hosea 6:4-6

God wants us to be faithful – to get to know Him personally -  to learn to trust Him completely – rather than to participate in rituals, represented by the temple sacrifices (burnt offerings) which were designed to focus the Israelites’ attention on the coming Messiah and His future death for the sins of the world.

But the sacrifices became nothing more than a series of gory, ritual, animal slaughters.

The Israelites only understood the temple sacrifices with their five senses.  They had no spiritual understanding that they actually symbolized the future death of Christ on the Cross for the sins of the world.

The Israelites focused on, embraced, and understood only the physical ritual slaughter of animals – rather than understanding the spiritual interpretation – symbolizing the coming Messiah’s death on the cross for the sins of the world.

So when Jesus Christ actually was born into this world and later claimed to be the Messiah, they did not recognize Him.  They branded Him a fraudulent imposter.

And they called for His brutal death by crucifixion!

That is the result of Christians focusing on sense knowledge, embracing rituals such as ritual Communion, Baptism by sprinkling, repetitious prayers, rather than understanding the spiritual interpretation of the Bible.

The farther away a Christian drifts from God, the more he or she will interpret the Scriptures literally without an understanding of their Spiritual meaning.

We must come to Christ with the purity and faith of a little child, trusting in Him completely.  When we do, we will become mature Christians with a spiritual understanding of His Word.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see (understand) God.”  Matthew 5:8

 

(For more information, see “Ritual vs. Relationship” at this link:

http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/spiritual/home_study/ritual_relationship.htm)