⏱ 5 min read

• Today we share briefly on Jesus’ interaction with little children and on prayer. This 3-minute read will be a great blessing to you. Let’s dig in:

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” ~ Luke 18:15-17

• Historians say it was customary for a mother to bring her children to a rabbi for a blessing, and that is why these mothers gathered around Jesus.
• The disciples seemed to think the parents were an intrusion, and they may have assumed the children were not worthy of Jesus’ precious time.
• Perhaps they felt the young children couldn’t possibly grasp Jesus’ teaching, so why bother Him?

Dear friend, children need a blessing from Jesus! The Mark version says He laid His hands on them and blessed them (Mark 10:16). It makes a huge difference the hands of blessings laid on a person!

Jesus also welcomed the little children because little children have the kind of faith and trust needed to enter God’s Kingdom. Please do not despise the little ones; Jesus really loves them! Let’s be deliberate towards the children in our care. Two quick points on this:

• We must introduce our children to Jesus. Jesus said: do not forbid them! Children can know Jesus and live for Him (In our previous post Prepare To Be Offended, we shared some resources that can help with this).
• We must also observe their simple trust and wonder so that we can remind ourselves that these traits are necessary for our own relationships with Jesus. (During our online Zoom Bible study today, we shared some characteristics of children that are needed in God’s Kingdom).

It is amazing how many things we can learn from children in our walk with Jesus and for our greatness in God’s kingdom. (You can check out our posts on The Humble Little Child and The Boy Jesus for some of these).

One of the highlights of Luke 18 is prayer and I cannot help but leave a short comment on this life-dependent aspect of our walk with God. Dear friend, “men always ought to pray and not lose heart.”

• To not lose heart means to not give in to doubts, fear, unbelief, discouragement, etc. when prayer is not answered immediately.
• Please rebuke and resist all opposition to the answer and all suggestions of failure.
• Jesus says God will answer our prayers. It is a divine blood-bought provision for us, so please let us not lose heart.

PUSH! Pray Until Something Happens! The secret of the woman’s success (in the parable) was her ‘continual going to the judge and pestering Him!’ Wear God out with your consistent prayer!

• From the words of Jesus (v8), faith is equal to persistent prayer.
• And Jesus was wondering if He would find people who pray and persist in prayer when He returns.
• How many of us would like Jesus to find faith when He returns? The only way is for you and I to persist in prayer.

And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8)

• Being in constant prayer means keeping our requests continually before God (day and night) as we live for Him day by day, believing that He will surely answer.
• When we live by faith, we are not to give up. God may tell us to wait, but His delays always have good reasons.
• As we persist in prayer, we grow in character, faith, and hope. Heyy… you’re blessed!

For more on prayer, you can check out our previous post (Jesus’ School of Prayer).