The Faith of a Child

“Pray, mommy, pray!” 4 year old Elijah said. His beloved helium balloon had made its way to the back deck and was never to be seen again. 

“The Bible says nothing is impossible to the one who believes. You pray, and see what God will do.” his mother said. 

So he did. He prayed that God would give him another helium balloon and deliver it to the back deck. Talk about specific! For two days, he kept running out to the back deck, checking for his balloon, then asking his mother why it wasn’t there. 

“Just keep believing,” she assured him, “And see what God will do.”

On the third day, they went to church (it was Sunday) and were gone most of the day. They got home, and all of a sudden, Elijah went, “It’s my balloon!” Sure enough, on the back deck, there was a silver star helium balloon on the deck. There was no weight attached to the bottom, it was just there. 

God had given him a new balloon, just like he’d prayed for. (This is a completely true story, I verified it myself!).

The special thing about this story is that there was nothing in Elijah’s mind to make him doubt. There was no nagging voice in the back of his head telling him that “maybe this isn’t God’s will”. He thought that this was something kind that God would want to do for him— why wouldn’t He? 

We can learn such a lesson from Elijah. In fact, we can learn lessons from children as a whole.

In Matthew 18:3, Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Children have so much less “clutter” in their minds than adults + teens do! They aren’t always thinking about that controversial sermon they just listened to, other experiences people have had, or why something didn’t happen a particular way last time they prayed.

I’m always able to look at my nieces and nephews and be in wonder over the fact that they see things in such a simple, straightforward way. For example, this happened a little while back… 

      My niece: Can you come in the living room with me?

      Me: Not right now. Probably in a little bit.

      My niece: Okay. Can we set a timer for when you can come in?

That was completely logical to her. It made sense, and was a good question. If not yet, how about later! (And for those of you who were wondering, yes, I set a timer then hung out with her in the other room!).

You see, as humans, we tend to fill our brains with stuff. Yep, stuff. Most of the time, it’s non–important stuff too (at least for me!). Then, when things come up and we need to have faith for something, we find ourselves jumping all around in our minds. “The last person I knew who was dealing with this ended up like…” or “But I heard a story once about…” seems to suddenly pop into our heads, and before we know it, we’re so full of doubt that—according to James 1:6–7— we are not to expect to receive anything from God! 

Doubt is so dangerous, because it puts us in a position of being unable to receive from God. The opposite of doubt is faith. 

I encourage you this week to look at things through the simple lens that Elijah had. He doesn’t know lots of theology, Bible verses, or sermons, but he knows these two things: God loves him, and anything is possible to him who believes. 

Keep it simple. It’s so much easier to have faith when doubt and wandering thoughts aren’t constantly vying for control of our minds. 

Remember, anything is possible to the one who believes (Mark 9:23). Do you want to be someone who believes? 

I’d love to hear from you in the comments! Do you have any cool faith testimonies? Although this one may seem pretty silly, once I prayed for a box of mac n cheese— even a specific brand and flavor. Then I waited. Well, some time later, family friends blessed us with some groceries since they had been gifted with more than their family could use, and can you imagine what I found inside? One box of the exact kind of mac n cheese I had asked for! God is so kind <3

Lastly, if you would like to read more posts like this one, a couple are… 

• Walk By Faith, Not By Sight
• The Power Of A Righteous Person’s Effective Prayer
• Trusting The Only One Who Can Be Trusted