Childlike Trust in Jesus

[blessedstar]

I want to talk with you about trust in God for two reasons, the excessive worry I see in people and secondly for the excessive fear of God i see in people.

There is a certain joy to be found in the childlike trust in Jesus. This kind of trust takes away the worry of tomorrow and the excessive guilt we may have of the past. It allows us to live in the present, to just be in the moment and more than this, it allows us to be thankful for what we have presently, whether that is something we are drawn towards that is, the natural inclination we have towards events and happenings that bring us happiness, or whether that is something we are not naturally drawn to like suffering. We find in childlike trust in Jesus we are happy to be, trusting in His goodness in all times of our lives, not looking back and not looking too far forwards, however we are happy to move forward in life safe in His Providence.

When we worry about tomorrow we limit the Providence of God that makes all things good. We cannot see that His Mighty hand can reach across eternity and bring any siuation to His Will which is always good. God does not leave His children to suffer without the promise of Victory.

When we look back at the past anxious about the situations that have happened and how we have acted despite making a good confession we can be weighed down so that we cannot live in the present, but forever are looking back with regret and sorrow. This is not what Jesus desires for us. Jesus is merciful, once the confession is made we have plunged ourselves into the depths of His vast Ocean of Mercy and we need not have fear of the past anymore, it is gone and we are once again ‘square with the house’. Jesus does not look back for the repentant sinner, Jesus looks at the moment of repentance and then looks forward, He looks to what He will do to draw that soul even closer to Himself, Jesus looks to eternity for that soul.

I once heard a man I know talk about dogs and he gave me a great deal of pause for thought. The dog lives in the moment, it doesn’t dwell on the past, it can’t plan for the future, the dog only sees the exact moment it is in and children are like this. You can tell a child that three weeks from now they will be going to see the sea. If you tell them once and don’t mention it again, they will for a little while talk about going to see the sea. Then the next day they will not mention the sea, they won’t dwell on it. Unless someone mentions a trip or going away somewhere the child will not mention the sea again. I know, I have watched my own child. The man who talked about the dogs is a well known dog behaviourist and he compared the simplicity of a dog to that of a child; the child is much more complex than the dog, the child is spiritual, the dog is not, but what the man says is true. The child does live in the moment. The child doesn’t worry about anything. The child accepts and the child is happy with the present moment.

Adults talk to children and they can get them thinking far ahead, they can work them up into a frenzy about Christmas and Christmas presents and they don’t need to do a great deal to do this, all they need do is keep mentioning the fact that Christmas is coming. The same is true of the past, children rarely mention the past unless adults remind them of it, asking them if they remember when they first went on a train or when they last went to see a movie etc.

Some things trigger a memory in a child, seeing something will trigger it in their minds just as it does for adults, but without external stimulus children will remain happily in the present.

From our early childhood we have learnt (from those who also learnt) to look back and we have learnt to look too far forward, but life’s harsh lessons teach us that looking back can be painful, damaging and unproductive and looking too far forward can lead to disappointment, self-reliance and worry.

continued

 

[blessedstar]

Contination one

Live in the present with a childlike trust in Jesus, if you live here, in this moment, you will fully live the moment, you will not live this moment tinged by the past nor will you mar the moment with worry about tomorrow, you will live this moment with Jesus trusting in Him to the fullest. You will have the fullest moment of life and if this moment of life is a moment of what you see as beauty you will have the fullest moment of beauty you ever had and if this moment is a moment of suffering you will have the fullest moment of suffering you ever had united to Jesus on the Cross and this moment of suffering will not break you because you approach each moment of suffering in Jesus in the moment and do not look back with fear on past suffering nor do you look forward and worry what suffering may be ahead, but you endure presently in the moment and find peace in Jesus.

There is no reason for a new day to break yet we take it for granted; look at the new day as the first day of creation or more personally as the first day of your life; everyday is a new beginning living in the moment, equally look at each night as the last night because to truly live in the moment is to know it may be your last moment this side of life.

Live like a child trusting in God and you will live free not as as slave serving out of fear, but you will live free in Jesus and serving Jesus, internalising the Law so it becomes Love and you no longer live by the Law but live by Love in the moment and the soul who does this does not need the Law because Love dictates the Law and more than the Law in his heart and that is Love which is above the Law and you will no longer live but it will be Christ Jesus who lives in you by your trust in Him in the moment. And Christ Jesus is Love.

I would like you to post your meditations on living in the moment as Jesus directs us to do and please post them for the benefit of all of us.

I can only pray as I live in the moment, therefore live in the moment as you pray with your life.

Thank you and in my Living Prayer of life.

 

[Joysong]

Hello Blessedstar,

I noticed your thread, but was not able to say very much on the point for which you wanted feedback.

I would like you to post your meditations on living in the moment as Jesus directs us to do and please post them for the benefit of all of us.

I am familiar with several 12-step programs and this is the essence to helping people overcome serious difficulties by concentrating on one day at a time, yes, even one moment at a time. True, it can help all of us if we do this, but since few answered your post, maybe they are just not there yet in that respect, good though it is. You had a lot of readers, and I’m sure you planted some good seeds! I hope this helps.

Carole

 

[InLight247]

I clearly remember my worries as a young child. I can still experience some of my fear and anxiety when I was about six or seven. But I had never told anyone of my emotion back then. In front of my parents, I appeared as a worry free little girl. Therefore, I am not sure your description of a child’s mentality applies to all children. And my viewpoint of living in the moment may be a little different from yours.

But I understand your main point is not to worry which is a very good advice.

 

[blessedstar]

I clearly remember my worries as a young child. I can still experience some of my fear and anxiety when I was about six or seven. But I had never told anyone of my emotion back then. In front of my parents, I appeared as a worry free little girl. Therefore, I am not sure your description of a child’s mentality applies to all children. And my viewpoint of living in the moment may be a little different from yours.

But I understand your main point is not to worry which is a very good advice.

I didn’t have a great childhood. I can remember being very sad as well as remembering being very happy as a child, but I cannot remember the same worry I have experienced in adulthood and I never had any worry connected to my love of God.

I never saw God as someone who was a source of worry, fear or distrust. I always saw God as my best friend and I would talk to Him as a small child. Whatever was happening in my life as a child I didn’t lose trust in God, I may have lost trust in people and even in the Church at times, but I never lost trust in God.

God never seemed to me to be someone to distrust.

As I have grown older my trust in God has increased and in a way I have reverted back to that childlike trust that can so easily be taken away by what is to be endured in life. If a person endures much in early life inflicted upon them by adults or even by their peers perhaps at school, then early on that childlike trust in God can be brought into question, can lead to worry and can lead to fear.

 

[Joysong]

I was posting in another thread today, and in thinking about some of the examples in the book; one of them that came to mind probably could be considered in light of living in the present moment with a wider scope and consideration, extending our childlike trust to believing God for more than what is present to our circumstances.

The author wrote:

Imagine a little boy looking through a knothole in the fence at a parade going by on the street. He can see just a little bit of the parade at a time. If he sees a clown he’s full of joy. If he sees a lion he’s afraid. If there is a space between the band and the arcrobats he may even think the parade is over. And if someone stands in front of the knothole he sees nothing. It is a very frustrating experience since he evaluates the parade only on the basis of what he sees (or can’t see ) at that moment.

Then there’s a voice calling his name. His older brother has climbed up on top of the roof and says, “Come on up. You can see much better from here!”

The little boy scampers up on the rooftop and from there he can see the whole length of the street below. He can see the beginning of the parade, the middle of it, and the end. It’s wonderful! He’s seeing things in a new perspective and it isn’t the way it looked through a knothole in the fence at all.

Carole

 

[DBT]

Hi blessedstar -

The ideas you’re presenting on living in the present moment remind me very much of a classic book on Catholic spirituality by Fr. Jean Pierre deCuassade called “Abandonment to Divine Providence” . . . sometimes referred to as the “Sacrament of the Present Moment.”

Fr. deCuassade’s basic idea is that all we ever need to reach the height of spiritual perfection in this life is to be found right here, right now . . . in the present moment. We encounter God’s will hundreds of times a day . . . in every conversation we have, thought we think or action we do. But because for most of us these moments are often mundane and tedious, we completely fail to recognize that God is truly present and writing our own “living Gospel” in our soul . . . moment by moment.

One of the key points he makes is that when we think of the presence of God we naturally focus on the “big things” like the events in the bible and the lives of the Saints – things that happen to “other” people; He couldn’t possibly be here with me right now as I bang out these few words to you on the keyboard.

Fr. deCuassade turns our thinking on the present moment completely around. And after reading his book several times and trying to apply his teaching to my life, I have to say I have a whole new perspective on the meaning of “wasted time.”

Dave.

 

[InLight247]

Carole, I like your quote about the boy and the parade.
Dave, thanks for the good infomation.
For who is interested in the book, here is the online version:

ccel.org/ccel/decaussade/abandonment.toc.html

 

[ncjohn]

Fr. deCuassade’s basic idea is that all we ever need to reach the height of spiritual perfection in this life is to be found right here, right now . . . in the present moment. We encounter God’s will hundreds of times a day . . . in every conversation we have, thought we think or action we do. But because for most of us these moments are often mundane and tedious, we completely fail to recognize that God is truly present and writing our own “living Gospel” in our soul . . . moment by moment.

Hi Dave,

I found virtually identical thoughts in Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God. Again, the idea that God is there every moment of the day, in the most mundane of activities, for our little moments of thanks and praise.

I must say that I fail miserably in trying to implement that kind of thinking, but as Brother Lawrence comments, if you’re able to pull it off it would have to change your whole life, and would certainly bring one to complete and childlike trust.

I have *Abandonment *on my night table, but just never have managed to move it from there. I typically just stand at my bookshelf as I finish a book though and ask God to point out what I’m to read next, so I’m sure that will jump into my hands one of these days when He thinks it’s the right time, just as I’m sure I’ll be called to pick up and finish Cloud of Unknowing.

Amazingly, right now He has me reading the last Harry Potter book. Who would have thought!

 

[DBT]

Hi Dave,

I found virtually identical thoughts in Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God. Again, the idea that God is there every moment of the day, in the most mundane of activities, for our little moments of thanks and praise.

I must say that I fail miserably in trying to implement that kind of thinking, but as Brother Lawrence comments, if you’re able to pull it off it would have to change your whole life, and would certainly bring one to complete and childlike trust.

I have *Abandonment *on my night table, but just never have managed to move it from there. I typically just stand at my bookshelf as I finish a book though and ask God to point out what I’m to read next, so I’m sure that will jump into my hands one of these days when He thinks it’s the right time, just as I’m sure I’ll be called to pick up and finish Cloud of Unknowing.

Amazingly, right now He has me reading the last Harry Potter book. Who would have thought!

As you probably have guessed, I’m a spiritual book junkie; but only 3 have a permanent place on my night stand — the very one’s you mentioned:

• Br. Lawrence - Practice of the Presence of God
• Fr. deCuassade - Abandonment to Divine Providence
• The Cloud of Unknowing

The more I read these, the more I come to realize they’re saying essentially the same thing . . . just in different ways. Just lately I was stunned by the realization of what the author of the “Cloud” describes as the cloud of forgetting is remarkably similar to what Br. Lawrence says about habitually banishing unnecessary thoughts from our minds to remain perpetually in God’s loving presence . . . regardless of whether we are being “Martha” or “Mary” at the time.

And while Br. Lawrence speaks in broad, sweeping strokes – which is helpful on certain days; Fr. deCuassade comes in to fill in all the pesky little details to help one live in the present moment and practice the presence of God when things get muddled up in my mind.

And going back to one of the main themes from your thread, I’ve found these 3 books, in particular, are most helpful to me to get back to living from the “heart” when I’ve been spending to much time with my “head.”

The interior life really shouldn’t be as complicated as we sometimes make it out to be: silence, simplicity, abandonment, recollection.

Dave.

BTW - With 4 kids in the house, I wouldn’t be surprised if Harry Potter ends up preempting some of my usual reading as well

 

[DBT]

At the risk of digressing, the following passage from “The Cloud of Unknowing” sets the stage for all that is to follow in the book . . .
Cloud of Unknowing:

Therefore, be attentive to time and the way you spend it. Nothing is more precious. This is evident when you recall that in one tiny moment heaven may be gained or lost. God the master of time, never gives the future. He gives only the present, moment by moment.

And. . .

Bind yourself to Jesus…and enter into the fellowship of those who love him. This is the communion of the blessed and these will be your friends: our Lady, St. Mary, who was full of grace at every moment; the angels, who are unable to waste time; and all the blessed in heaven and on earth, who through the grace of Jesus employ every moment in love. See, here is your strength.

Dave.

 

[blessedstar]

Thank you all who have posted it is especially good to see you all on the forums again. When you are here there is a richness that is tangible and this is surely because you are all close to Jesus and for that I am pleased and I thank God.

I have found that in order for a soul to ‘take up his daily cross and follow Jesus’ it is also important to have a childlike trust in God. The Cross cannot be preached without preaching trust in God. This is why I have a firm belief in the revelations given to St Faustina by our Lord Jesus.

Jesus, I trust in you.

In my Living Prayer of life.