Faith of a Child

Posted by Joel Osteen on 11/1/2013

One day, I read about this 7-year-old girl named Jamie. She lived on a farm with her family. They had a cow that was about to give birth. Her father had already told the family that they weren't going to keep any more cows. Moving forward, every time one was born, they would have to either sell it or give it away. But for some reason, little Jamie really wanted to keep this calf that hadn't even been born yet. It was a desire of her heart. She started pleading and pleading with her father, "Daddy, please let me keep it. Daddy, please make an exception."

After a couple of weeks, she wore her father down. He said, "Jamie, I'll make a deal with you. If the calf is born black then you can keep him. But if he is brown or spotted like the rest of our cattle, we're going to give him away." She agreed. Well, little Jamie didn't know any better. She started praying and praying. Every night before she went to bed, "God, I'm asking that this cow be born black and that there won't be any doubt that he belongs to me."

Now most of us adults, we'd never pray anything like that. That's far out. That's kind of radical. But you know what I've learned? Radical faith gets radical results.

A couple of weeks later, the little calf was born. It was not only solid black, but right between its eyes, there was a mark that looked like a big J. Her name was Jamie. It's like God stamped that J saying, "I'm going to make sure everybody knows this cow belongs to little Jamie."

Today, I want to remind you that scripture says we are to come to God with the faith of a child. The faith of a child isn't small or immature; it's pure and it's radical. It's sincere and trusting. The faith of a child knows that God cares about each and every desire of our hearts.

"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." (Luke 18:17, ESV)