Mark 9:42 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.”
We have already seen that man has the God given ability to believe, i.e. faith. More importantly however, God gave man the ability to believe in Him and His creative power, for in the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord Jesus revealed to us that all children naturally believe in Him. As we have already mentioned however, this world is designed to destroy faith but even more so it is programmed to destroy faith in God. And so as children grow up very few are taught to exercise their faith in God, and those who are taught to believe in God are presented with a distorted teaching about Him, for from a very young age; many children are taught to believe in various fables and fairy tales while at the same time they are taught to believe in God. And so as children grow up and eventually realise that fables are untrue, what little faith they may still have in God also becomes eroded as they begin to question whether that which they have been taught about God is true. And so consequently when people eventually become mature adults the majority do not exercise any faith at all, especially in God, and thus they become what our Lord Jesus called a faithless and perverse generation. Nevertheless everyone still has faith even though it lies dormant and unused in most people. So how is it possible that children, with very limited understanding compared to adults, have a level of faith that most adults do not display, for even Jesus pointed us to look at their faith as the example that we should follow? The reason is because faith is in the mind and doubt is also a product of the mind. And so because children have very limited understanding, they have zero capacity for any doubt that would prevent their faith from working. Adults in this life on the other hand, operate at a huge disadvantage with regards to faith, because their understanding has developed primarily to doubt, thus preventing the faith in their minds from functioning.
Michael E.B. Maher
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