‘In the Kingdom hope is not naive’

This phrase which I read today in a devotional got my attention... ‘In the Kingdom hope is not naive’ As a follower of Jesus I know this to be true. God produced faith in me when I first heard the gospel and it led me to respond and come to him. And this is to be my continual posture because He is a good Father and has good gifts for his children. 

However, as I read this phrase today it stirred in me fresh faith; faith to press in and keep believing for things that yet seem impossible. For a man I know to be healed from cancer, for my friend Carole to be healed and others I am persevering in prayer for simply because I know that with God all things are possible.

Our hope in God is not naive but very certain...

We read in Hebrews 6:18-20 ‘by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf ‘

The word ‘naive’ means to act out of a lack of experience. God instead wants us to grow in our experience of Him through knowing his ways. The more we know God the more we will trust and the greater our faith and the risks we’ll take. like Peter who dared to walk on water and the many, we read of in Hebrews 11.

I am a woman of faith. I believe that God is good: that what he says about himself is true and that I can trust in his promises. I have seen God answer prayers both instantly and over time and I carry a testimony of his goodness but I know God wants to deepen my faith; a faith that perseveres, full of hope because of the certainty in my heart that he is good. 

Being naive is often associated with being like a child but in Jesus' upside-down Kingdom it has a positive connotation. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3 ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ Here he was speaking of childlike faith. Taking God at his word. Uncomplicated and without guile.

Let’s press in and be both childlike and persevering in our faith because we know He who promised is faithful.