On the Virtues of a Child

[Dancing]

"At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."" - Mat 11:26-30 NKJV

What does a child of the Heavenly Father look and act like?

I'd like to use this thread to pursue the answer to this question.

In the preceding verses, after reprimanding Charazin and Caperneum for their unbelief Yeshua speaks this prayer.

And just like His exhortation to the disciples to "let the children come to me", so, here He exhorts us all to come to Him with our heavy burdens. He asks us to "take My yoke upon you and learn from Me".

In the time of Yeshua's ministry, any rabbi's teachings were called his "yoke". Here Yeshua is offering deliverance to all those heavily burdened by the heavy yokes the pharisee and scribes placed on their disciples. His "yoke", that is, His teaching, is completely different. He asks us to 'learn from Him'.

I believe the most prominent characteristic of a child is his/her ability to trust. That's the first thing. And with that kind of child-like trust the next step is to listen and obey with simplicity.

This kind of simplicity is spoken of in Romans 10:

"But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, " 'Who will descend into the abyss?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."" - Rom 10:6-11 NKJV

This passage is usually made to speak of initial salvation and this is right. But even more so, the deeper significance here is the simple trusting of God and His Word and the willingness to humbly call on Him for every need.

Our God hears and answers. This is the happy life of a child of God.