Beware (7)

Dearly Beloved, I trust this finds you well and bubbling in the Lord.  We thank God for His mercies and grace and love for us. Today, we look at how Jesus cautions about how we should deal with little children. Indeed, children are a gift from God and a delight and joy. They can be a handful at times, but we are to love, nurture, guide and bring them up in the way of the Lord. In the text below, we find that Jesus shows that the Father loves the little ones and He doesn’t want any of them to perish. He also demonstrates that there is a lot we can learn from little ones.

Matthew 18v1-6, 10-14 (AMPC) says “At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and acknowledge and cleave to Me to stumble and sin [that is, who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought], it would be better (more expedient and profitable or advantageous) for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea…. Beware that you do not despise or feel scornful toward or think little of one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always are in the presence of and look upon the face of My Father Who is in heaven. For the Son of man came to save [from the penalty of eternal death] that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray and gets lost, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that is lost? And if it should be that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost. Just so it is not the will of My Father Who is in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost and perish.” Child of God, how do you view little children? Let us look at them, cherish and appreciate them the way our Heavenly Father does.

Prayer

Father, we thank You for this day. Thank You for Your goodness. Father, we thank You for little children. We pray that we will love, cherish, support, encourage and lead them to You as we ought to in Jesus name, amen.