Word Nerd Wednesday: receiving grace as a child, plus how to be childlike in Bible study and prayer

Greetings, fellow Word nerds, and welcome to another Wednesday post! This month we’ve been exploring four different facets of our identity in Christ, starting with that of a Child who asks and receives exactly what they need from the Father in trust and unconditional love. Today I’d like to dive deep with you into one of the key verses from Monday’s post. Enjoy!

The verse

And they were bringing children to Him so that He would touch them; but the disciples rebuked them.
But when Jesus saw [this,] He was indignant and said to them, “Allow the children to come to Me; do not forbid them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”
And He took them in His arms and [began] blessing them, laying His hands on them.

Mark 10:13-16 NASB

Verse-mapping process

To begin this process, I first wrote out the verses in my Wings devotional book using a couple of my free printable sticker sets. Stay tuned for the links to find them, or check out the Freebies tab in the menu above! I used my Tombow Fudenosuke hard-tip brush pen to do this.

I picked out some key words from the verse, thought about the context, and wrote out a quote from one of my favorite online commentaries (David Guzik). You can use the verse-reference link to explore these verses on your own!

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Want to learn more about what it means to be a child of God, according to Olaf, Agnes, and Nemo?

Find week 1 of the Wings devotional series here!

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Here are some of my take-aways from today’s study:

• Children are a metaphor for the humility required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven
• We receive the kingdom “like a child” because children “are often in a place where all they can do is receive” (David Guzik)
• Children are completely dependent on their parent’s resources, guidance, etc. in order to grow and learn, just like we are completely dependent on God to enter and receive the Kingdom
• So… being childlike in Biblical terms means acknowledging that I’m dependent on God and receiving His gifts without trying to earn them

This is how the pages turned out:

How to be childlike in Bible study

Here are some questions I thought might be useful to ask as we study the Bible with a childlike posture or headspace:

• Who is God the Father in these verses? What is His heart towards humanity?
• What truth do I need to receive?
• How is the goodness and generosity of God on display here?
• Where does my heart need to change in order to become obedient to these verses?

How to be childlike in prayer

I’m also thinking this month of how we can approach the throne of Grace in each of the different headspaces or heart-postures. Here’s how a child might pray:

• Ask God for exactly what you need.
• Thank Him for all the things, even if they seem small or insignificant.
• Trust Him with all of your feelings and ask for comfort if you need it.

Free printables!!

I have lots of free printables to match this month’s study and today’s process! Click on any of the images )or the bright orange button) below to download.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Word Nerd Wednesday and the deep dive we did into Scripture. What did you learn? I’d love to discuss!

Happy studying!