My three-year-old woke up in the middle of the night last night. She was dazed, upset and emotional, but knew exactly what to do. She started yelling, “Mom!” She knew that I was the answer to her problem. She had no doubt that I loved her, that I could be trusted to come to her rescue, and that what I said would be the truth. There is no substitute for me to her.

In Matthew 18:3, Jesus told His disciples, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” He was talking about the kind of relationship that my child has with me.

Being child-like is not the same as being childish. At some point in our Christian lives, we have to begin the process of growing-up. Paul said, “Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults (1 Cor. 14:20).”

Part of the process of growing-up is learning things. The Bible is meant to be read cover-to-cover, over and over again over the course of our lives. But not just read- studied. We should be learning and moving forward in our Christian faith continually.

The author of Hebrews expressed his frustration that the Believers that he was writing to were not maturing spiritually. He wrote, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguished good from evil (Heb. 5:12-14).”

It’s an interesting phenomenon that the more that we mature in our Christian walk, the more that we will come to Christ as little children. As we grow, we learn with more and more certainty that Jesus is the only answer, that He does love us, that He can be trusted to rescue us, and that He is truth. There will be no substitute for us.

We are so glad to have you in Bible study with us! If you miss a devotion, you can find them archived at https://comethirstyministry.com/blog/

Reading Plan–Week Four

Day One–Matthew 16
Day Two–Matthew 17
Day Three–Matthew 18
Day Four–Matthew 19
Day Five–Matthew 20