revealed unto babes.

[ "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes." (Matthew 11: 25; Luke 10: 21)

The wise and prudent are the men who are conscious and confident of their power of mind and reason to aid them in their pursuit of Divine Knowledge. The babes are those whose chief work is not the mind and its power, but the heart and its disposition. Ignorance, helplessness, dependence, meekness, teachableness, trust and love; these are the tempers God seeks in those whom He teaches. (Psalms 25:9,12,14,17,20)

...we should ever receive the Word in the Spirit that waits for the Father to reveal its truth in us. ...we should have the child-like, yea the babe-like disposition to which the Father loves to impart the secrets of His love. ...With the babes, not the head and its knowledge but the heart and Feeling, the sense of humility, love and trust, is the first thing, and to them God reveals, in their inner life and experience, the very thing they know they cannot understand.

...The true preacher knows how much depends upon the state of heart, and seeks, even as our Lord Jesus did, to subordinate the teaching of objective truth or doctrine to the cultivation of those dispositions without which teaching profits little. A hundred sermons, eloquent and earnest, to the wise and prudent, to Christians who listen with the thought that they can understand, and that what they hear will somehow profit them, will bring less real blessing, than one sermon to hearers in whom the preacher has awakened a consciousness of spiritual ignorance, a babe-like docile spirit that waits for and depends on, that truly accepts and obeys, the Father's teaching.

In the secret chamber every man is, as far as human aid is concerned, his own teacher and preacher. He is to train himself in the blessed habit of babe-like simplicity and teachableness. Remembering that it was not only needful that Divine Truth should be revealed in the world, but that there must be an individual revelation to each, by the Holy Spirit, his first care is to wait on the Father to reveal to him, and within him, the hidden mystery in its power in the inner life. In this posture he exercises the babe-like spirit, and receives the Kingdom as a little child. All Evangelical Christians believe in regeneration. How few believe that when a man is born of God, a babe-like dependence on God for all teaching and strength ought to be his chief characteristic. It was the one thing our Lord Jesus insisted on above all. When He pronounced the poor in heart, the meek, the hungry, "blessed,'' when He called men to learn of Him that He was meek and lowly in heart, when He spoke so often of our humbling ourselves and becoming as little children, it was because the first and chief mark of being a child of God, of being like Jesus Christ, is an absolute dependence upon God for every blessing and specially for any real knowledge of spiritual things.

...The new birth, being begotten of God, by which we become God's children, is meant to make us babes. It will give us the child-spirit as well as the child-teaching. It cannot do the second without the first. Let us believe and yield ourselves to the new life in us, to the leading of the Spirit; He will breathe in us the spirit of little children. The first object of Bible study is to learn the hidden wisdom of God. The first condition of obtaining this knowledge, is to accept the fact that God Himself reveals it to us.

The first disposition needed for receiving that revelation is a babe-like spirit. "We all know how the first thing a wise workman does is to see that he has the proper tools, and that they are in proper order. He does not count it lost time to stop his work and sharpen the tools. It is not lost time to let the Bible study wait, till you see whether you are in the right position waiting for the Father's revelation in the meek and babe-like spirit. If you feel that you have not read your Bible in this spirit, confess and forsake at once the self-confident spirit of the wise and prudent. Not only pray for the babe-like spirit, but believe for it. It is in you, though neglected and suppressed; you may begin at once as a child of God to experience it.

...Live as a babe before God. As a new-born babe desire the milk of the Word.

And beware of trying to assume this state of mind only when you want to study Scripture. It must be the permanent habit of your mind, the state of your heart. Then alone can you enjoy the continual guidance of the Holy Spirit. ]


- Andrew Murray
Revealed Unto Babes, The Inner Chamber and The Inner Life

intention.

sincerity is not simplicity.
sincerity is about self.
simplicity is about Christ.

[He who loves us means by this to leave us room for our own freedom, so that we may dare to choose for ourselves, with no other certainty than that His love will be pleased by our intention to please Him.] - TM

Father, grant me Your peace,
   to walk quietly with You.
i do not know all of the ways in which i have sinned,
   but i ask that You forgive me,
   and lead me aright.
i desire to be faithful, Father.
i desire to be obedient.
i desire to please You.
i do not want to live for this world.
i do not want to be too concerned
   with the matters of this world.
this world is fleeting,
   but Your Kingdom is eternal.
grant that i might live for Your Kingdom.
O Merciful God, i acknowledge my sin,
   that i do not always live for Your will,
   that i do not always surrender myself
      to Your will,
   that i do not always deny myself.
my intention is not always pure,
   my effort not always honest.
and i acknowledge my weaknesses,
   that i am often discouraged,
   that i am often discontent,
   that i often do not persevere.

i say that i can trust You,
   and i believe that i do.
but can i trust myself,
   trust that i am seeking You,
   trust that You are shaping my desires,
   that my desire is to desire what You desire?

is my desire to please You, in fact, pleasing to You?
is Your love pleased by my intention to please You?

Father, i know that my desire is to please You.
i trust that my intention is to please You.

transform me by Your love that i seek.
conform me to Your desires which i seek.
and strengthen me by Your grace
   which i long to embrace.

a prayer for simplicity.

Father, i am thankful and even excited to live Your life.

though it scares me from time to time, or more often,

i resign my fears to You.

i resign my uncertainties to You,

to be consumed by Your Certainty.

i resign my helplessness to You,

to be transformed by Your grace,

and to be made by Your faith into strength.

anxiety is the action of a faithless mind,

or heart,

or spirit.

You have given me faith,

and by Your mercy i will not be anxious.

i am content to live this life,

Your life,

whatever it may mean for me,

content to live in small ways,

in small things,

unimpressive to a hungry world,

but pleasing to Your Stillness.

may i be a living sacrifice in all my ways,

holy and pleasing to You.

may i continue to walk by faith,

to find hope in Your kingdom,

to find myself in Your Christ.

amen.

my God and my all!

may i delight in You, O my God, at all times, in all things.

[may any joy without You

be burdensome for me,

and may i not desire anything else

besides You.

may all work, O Lord,

delight me when done for Your sake,

and may all repose not centered in You

be ever wearisome for me.

grant unto me, my God,

that i may direct my heart to You

and that in my failures

i may ever feel remorse for my sins

and never lose the resolve to change.]

submissive without protest.

poor without discouragement.

patient without complaint.

humble without posturing.

cheerful without frivolity.

mature without gloom.

Father, i trust that You are leading me. i trust that these trials will be for my good, for the strengthening of my faith and the deepening of my spiritual life. Father, would You grant me that spiritual joy possessed by the saints? that when i suffer in this body i might have such joy and peace, knowing that i suffer with the Crucified One, and that i might be raised to glory with the Risen One! [O Lord Christ!]

[i am crucified with Christ. i no longer live, but He lives in me. the life i live in the flesh, i live by faith . . . ]

i know that when i ask for peace and do not find it, it is not because You have refused to give it. gracious and merciful Father! Your peace is always before me, and yet so often i cannot attain it. how can i have peace if i do not have faith and hope? Father, i beg You, teach me whatever i need to live by faith, to look by hope. to embrace the peace of Your almighty presence.

today as i work, i ask that i might see beyond the temporal, beyond the immediate. i ask that i might have spiritual vision, that i might have peace and patience, even that i might enjoy my work.

bring me to Your life, my God and my all!