“Verily I say unto you, except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3
Through the depiction that He gives in the Bible, I gather that the kingdom of heaven is limitless and has all the things that logical minds cannot fathom. It is a place where you need to have the kind of faith that will believe anything, just like what a child would believe. “According to your faith, it is so,” says the Author of faith.
I believe thus if He says anything, it means anything. If He says, ask and you will receive, it means just that. It is really that simple. It is so because His plan for each of us is so grand that it would take a sincere and perfect (trusting) heart to believe and agree with Him before we can fully understand it. A heart like a child’s where we all were once.
I believe it is by design. He has always meant it to be that way and I like that.
Life was simple for me. Simple things made me happy. I would look forward to the school day just because I had planned the snack or stationary I would buy with my daily allowance. Then adulthood entered in and reality (of this world) set in. It was not long before I felt that everything depended on me and my performance. Gradually through the years, I started to feel that life was heavy and 'tomorrow' was a dreadful word.
Many years later, on one morning as I was getting ready to go to the office, I heard a voice from within me. It was the Lord. "Why do you go through life like you have to take care of yourself?" He asked. That startled me. I knew what He meant, yet I did not know how to answer that. There were too many hurts and disappointments, and I was toughening up myself each day. Living not depending on Him was hurting me yet I did not know how to stop. But the Lord knew and the Lord cared.
After our daughter fell ill, health and nutrition became the focus. I was determined to learn everything I needed to learn to improve her condition. I tried to follow different kinds of diet lifestyles from gluten-free, paleo, sugar-free, you name it. But it did not work and I went into despair not knowing what else to do.
The finished work of Christ
Determined to find the answer, I started to seek the Lord, returning to where it all began: saved by grace through faith. I began to understand what Jesus went through at the cross and why. His sacrifice for me paid what I could not otherwise pay myself.
I learned that because of what He had done on the cross, my health has been restored to that of my beginning before sin was found in me. The health that does not depend on the nutrition law of this world, but restored back to me because He bore and paid for all my sin. All of these by grace through faith. Slowly I learned to live this life trusting the One who gave His life for me. Perhaps for the first time in life, I began to walk in faith.
I began to understand what it means that the just shall live by faith: just as we came to salvation through faith, now that we are saved, everything in our lives works by faith, even what we believe about food. Faith is what allows the Holy Spirit in us to bear witness, whether it is healing or working of miracles.
Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows. And he that doubts is damned if he eats, because he eats not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:22-23
So, each day I have to renew my mind with this truth of His finished work, considering not how and what my body feels. I now partake in the Lord’s supper every morning during my quiet time with the Lord and then together with my family, declaring the finished work that the Lord accomplished at the cross. Nothing is too small for me to consult the Lord and He always guides me. When I sense peace within me, I will take the step of faith and do it.
I now live believing that I am healthy and whole, not because of what I eat, but because the Lord was made my ransom therefore my flesh is fresher than that of a newborn's, and my youth is being renewed:
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth: He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness. Job 33:23-26
It's a bit like walking on water, you really walk by faith. After a while, my faith would grow and I stopped caring about any negative effect, which became lesser and lesser. It has not been easy, but I chose to believe because I saw the tremendous love Father poured out through His Son, my Lord Jesus Christ. Surely I can trust Someone who sent His only Son to die for me and Someone who endured the cross and loved me till death, so I think to myself.
Today, I eat whatever I felt led by the Spirit: I eat what the Lord would eat, choosing good and the best in the name of love. Because of Jesus, we now can enjoy life and life in abundance.
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts thy works. Ecclesiastes 9:7
The verse above is a prophetic verse that speaks of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for that is the only work that Father accepts:
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28-29
