Faith Like a Child - 2
My God is With Me
December 8, 2013
Jesus said something very amazing whenever some parents were bringing children to them, these parents wanted Jesus to pray for their kids, or to touch them and lay hands on them. And the disciples weren't having anything to do with that, they were like, 'No! Keep your kids away from Jesus, He's way too important for that!'
And Jesus didn't like what they were doing. He said, 'No!' And He called the disciples on it and He said, 'Let the little children come to me.' And in Mark 10:15, He said ~
15 Truly I say to you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
Anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And Jesus was teaching us that yes we can be intellectual, and yes we can be mature; but at the same time we should believe and trust in God with the innocence and faith like a little child.
Last week, we took a look from the perspective that “My God is for Me.” Today I want to look at the presence of God from a child’s perspective.
Adults may use one of the OMNI words for this one. We would refer to God’s omnipresence. That means God is everywhere; He's here, He's there, He's around the world, He's everywhere. A little child would simply say ~ My God is with me.
He's not just everywhere, we know that; but He's actually a very personal God who's with me. And presence really, really matters, especially to a child.
For example, if you leave a kid alone at a house the kid's going to freak out as soon as the house creaks or there's any kind of noise. I remember when my parents would be gone and I was home alone and I would get in bed. The house would be quiet and I would begin to hear creaking noises on the stairs. I would lay still in bed, just waiting for someone to come and get me. But, when there were people in the house, I don’t remember hearing those creaking noises. You see, a child takes great comfort in the presence of others.
Presence really matters to a child! A little kid isn't going to just say, "My God is everywhere, but my God is actually with me and that makes all of the difference in the world.
In Isaiah 41:10, I love the promise from God. This is what God says ~
So do not fear, for...
Why? Why shouldn’t you fear? Do not fear God says, "I am with you."
God tells us this, and because God says it, we can trust this is true! He said, So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
That’s a great promise from God to you and I. We don’t have to fear, because God is with us, we don’t need to be discouraged or distressed, because God says, “I AM YOUR GOD.” You see, God is making this personal. And He isn’t done! God says I will strengthen and help you and will hold us up! That’s great news folks! So, whatever you’re going through, and I know there’s lots of us going through lots of different things, God is with you! Don’t doubt it, even in the midst of the raging storm!
There’s that verse I say just about every week. It’s in the OT and it’s in Hebrews 13:5, God promises: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.
You don't have to be afraid if you have child-like faith to believe that my God is always with me. And when you believe He's with you, when you really believe and trust that, you suddenly have confidence and you don't worry so much about what happens to you because you know God is with you and He's for you and He's working in all things to bring about good. You have child-like confidence “My God is with me.”
The problem is many of you, even those of you who are committed Christians, you don't believe it, you don't really believe it. You have a kind of intellectual theological understanding, "Yeah, God is everywhere!" But you don't really believe He's with you.
When you read the Christmas story in Matthew, he tells us 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”). God sent Jesus to be with us.
God came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and He was on our side, He was for us and with us. But it gets better, because Jesus gave His life on the cross for us – and was raised from the dead for us. And when Jesus ascended to heaven, it was really for us. Because as Jesus ascended the Holy Spirit came to dwell, to live in each person who believes in Jesus. So, no matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, you can trust, God will never leave you nor forsake you.
It’s the great words of Psalm 139,
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
These words of David remind us to have the faith of a little child and believe, "My God is with me . . . ALWAYS! ALWAYS and ALWAYS!"
So, what can we do to get ourselves to this point? Let me point out a couple of thoughts ~
Since God is with you, the first thing I want to encourage every single one of you to do is simply to talk to God. I didn’t say pray, because when we pray, we are talking to God. They go hand in hand. And prayer may be a little too overwhelming and intimidating. Some people say, I never learned how to pray, but you did learn how to talk, so just talk to God.
There have been times when I’ve been too overwhelmed to really pray. I didn’t know where to start or even how to start, so I would just start talking to God, and that talk because my most heartfelt prayers. So, talk to God about what’s going on in your life.
And when you pray, use words you normally would. Don’t try to paint your prayer or talk with flowery words or use a different – deeper – more spiritual type voice. Just talk to God like you would talk to a good friend. And your prayer / talk doesn’t need to last for an hour. It’s okay if it does, but do what you need. Sometimes, the best prayers are the quick short direct prayers to God. Sometimes we’re stressed and we need those 30 seconds with God to settle us down.
I want to encourage you to make this as simple as you can and realize that when God is with you just talk to Him. Talk to Him like you would a friend.
So, what should I talk about with God? Paul gave us a great help when he told the Philippians ~ something that really gives us good direction of what to talk about, Philippians 4:6-7, he said:
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Paul says make your requests known to God. Not some of them, but in every situation. So, that means pray about your geometry exam, pray about your hamster that got out again and you can't find, pray about what to get for the person for Christmas that has everything, pray about your kids who are struggling, pray about work, pray about your health and on and on. You can even pray about how to deal with your difficult cousin you see every Christmas, because everybody has a difficult cousin. And if you say, "I don't have a difficult cousin," you are the cousin! Because everybody has a difficult cousin!
Tell God what you need. Talk to God because He is with you. You should also take a moment to stop and give thanks to God for what He has already done in your life.
Then Paul adds ~ 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Since God is with you, He will send His peace, which surpasses your understanding, and He will bring peace to your racing heart and mind.
Another thing besides talking to God – a child might tell you ~ You should listen to God!
Deuteronomy 30:20 tells us to:
...Listen to God's voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life.
Listen to God's voice. Now, that’s a hard one too. Lots of people would say, I don’t know what I’m listening for. And does God even speak today? I believe God still speaks to us, most of the time, we talk to God, then hang up and we don’t allow God the time to speak to us.
But God also speaks in so many other ways. And I really truly believe that if you have any kind of prayer life with God that you should spend as much time listening as you do talking.
Now, how does God speak? The best way to hear God's voice is to read His Word. You read His Word and He'll speak to you, I promise you. Make it part of your daily life and He'll speak to you.
There have been times when I’ve experimented at reading a different version of the Bible for a year. That changes all the familiar verses, but it causes other verses to jump out at you. A few years ago I read through the chronological Bible. That was a total stretch for me. Because what came next didn’t come next. But it was good to do.
Also, there have been times when I’m reading the Bible and a verse pops out that I would swear was never there before. That God planted that verse in my Bible that day. And when that happens, God wants me to slow down and hold onto that verse and understand what He’s trying to tell me that day.
God can also speak to you through other people, a spouse, or parent, or friend may say something which helps. You may hear God speak to you through music. I’ve heard stories from people on “K-Love” of people who experienced God through a song or simply listening to the station.
God can speak to you through His Spirit. If you're a Christian, you are spiritually connected with God and His Spirit internally speaks to you, prompts you, guides you and you learn to recognize the voice of His Spirit.
The longer you walk with God, the more you talk to Him — the more you realize He's with you, you don't just talk to Him but you listen to Him and He guides you and He gives you direction. Isaiah 30:21 tells us ~
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk in it."
You talk to Him, you listen to Him. Because my God is with me.
There’s really two other things I want to mention, and at the same time I don’t want to keep us all day, so I’m going to try to move kind of quickly.
After we’ve talked to God and listened to God, we should receive from God.
Most of us don’t know how to receive. We can give, but we aren’t good receivers. We don't know how to receive from other people very well. We're so full of pride. We’ll help you, but don’t ask me, I don’t need help.” You know I’m talking about you. We’re not very good at receiving? Of course ask a little kid if they want help with something or if they want a present – have you ever heard them say "No, no, no, that’s too many presents! I’m not worthy of them. Please give those toys to a more deserving child!”
The kid will say, “Bring it on!” A kid knows how to receive! And with a child-like faith in the presence of God we learn to receive from Him.
In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, we learn this about God ~
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
I'm telling you, it doesn't matter what you're going through, because God is promising you that He will comfort you, if you will receive His comfort. And what is so cool about this passage is that after you receive God’s comfort for whatever afflicts you, then you can go and bring comfort to others with the same comfort you received from God.
We read in Isaiah 66:13, As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.
Whenever the boys got hurt, do you know they always ran right to me and ignored Debbie. That’s because I have always been such a good comforter to my kids. HA!! Don’t believe that for a minute. They ran to Debbie, because they knew mom would hold them and would hurt for them as much as they hurt. Mom’s are like ~ “Oh honey, baby child, come here! Let me kiss your boo-boo and make it better! Let me give you a Band-Aid!" As a mother comforts her child, that's how God comforts you; the God of all comfort.
And the fourth thing I want to tell you is because my God is with me I'm going to enjoy His presence.
I'm just going to enjoy His goodness and enjoy His presence. How many of you notice it's so much more fun to enjoy something you love with someone you love, right? It's so much more fun. You've got something really fun, you're by yourself it's not as much fun as if you're enjoying something fun with someone you love.
When you realize God is with you, you can enjoy everything you enjoy with the God who gave you everything you enjoy. When you see an awesome sunrise, you say, "God you did that, you're showing off again God!" and you enjoy His presence in the sunrise. And when you’re making a presentation, you ask for God to help you and you sense His presence and power! And you give thanks!
And when you help someone in need, and God gives you the right words and ways to minister to them, you praise god and say, “God this is awesome! You're using me to make a difference!” And then you come to church and you know “God you're here, I know it and I love it!”
In Proverbs 8:30, Solomon said ~ I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence.
Or as Nehemiah said ~ The Joy of the Lord is my strength!
He is with me. WHEW!!!!
Ok, we’re done! Remember,
talk to God
listen to God
Receive God
Enjoy God
My God is for me ~ My God is With Me
