What Is Childlike Faith?

Some people seem to grow up before their time. While it’s great to be responsible, take care of yourself, and be resourceful, you don’t have to do all of that at the age of five. Responsibilities will come soon enough.

What a different life childhood is. Some people don’t realize this, but you can’t be a child again.

The Bible teaches that, as Christians, we are to be childlike in our faith. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4 NLT).

That means we need to humble ourselves and realize that we don’t have all the answers. It means we need to come in complete dependence on God, putting our faith in Him. And as the years pass by and our faith deepens, we need to keep a sense of childlike simplicity and wonder.

There are some areas of the Christian life in which we are to be childlike. We don’t need to know all the intricacies of evil.

On the other hand, there are areas in our lives in which we need to grow up spiritually. Sometimes we behave like spoiled children when we should be behaving like mature people of God.

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind” (1 Corinthians 14:20 NLT).

There is nothing wrong with being spiritual babies when we’re new in the faith. But as the years pass by, we need to become mature, while still maintaining a childlike faith.