Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)
A child learns to walk by taking steps, falling, and rising again. The fall may bring a moment of crying, but the thought of quitting never enters the mind. The child continues without planning a retreat. There is no calculation of the odds or analysis of past attempts. The desire is to walk, and that desire rules the process. The falls are soon forgotten. The child does not develop a philosophy of defeat, nor is there a lingering shame that prevents the next attempt.
The child’s mind is free from the scars that adults often carry. There is no lasting embarrassment that attaches itself to a mistake. There is no identity shaped by failure. The next step is taken as if the last fall never happened. The attention remains on the act itself, not on the possibility of falling again. This is not denial of reality, but a refusal to dwell on what has no power to define the outcome.
In contrast, adults tend to live with a constant awareness of past defeats. They turn every setback into a case study on why success may never come. They become skilled at forming explanations that protect their image. They speak of God in ways that absolve themselves of responsibility. They develop intricate theologies to justify weakness. They begin to question whether they were ever meant to succeed, whether it was ever God’s will that they should walk in the first place.
This is where the difference must be made clear. Faith is not an experiment to see if we are chosen for a life of power. It is not a rare privilege granted to a few. God calls every believer to live by faith. It is the life we were created to live. We are made to see prayers answered, to work miracles, to obtain promises, and to perform exploits in the name of Jesus. These are not exceptions to the Christian life. They are its normal state.
The child does not begin with questions about whether the parent wants him to walk or whether he has the right to walk. The child walks because walking is the thing to do. In the same way, we believe because believing is the thing to do. The word of God speaks, and our place is to act on it. Faith thinks about doing, not about failing. It looks ahead to the next step rather than backward to the last fall. It treats the promise as the controlling reality and moves accordingly.
Pride has no place here. Pride would make us stop and preserve our status by explaining why nothing happened. Pride would keep us from another attempt so we could guard our reputation. Pride would rather protect the illusion of wisdom than face the humility of repeated effort. Faith throws pride away and moves again. It refuses to accept paralysis.
Childlike faith is not immaturity. It is the refusal to become the kind of adult who has learned to accommodate unbelief. We are to mature in understanding, in strength, in skill, but not in the suspicion that miracles are unlikely and God’s promises are fragile. The child’s persistence must remain in us even as our doctrine grows. The boldness to try again after falling must never leave us.
The steps of faith may be small or great, but the same rule applies. Keep moving. Do not create a religion that protects you from the embarrassment of trying. Do not let the falls become your theology. Fix your mind on the act of walking. The more you walk, the more you step into the life you were born to live.