Col 2:7 ...grow in faith...let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done.
Keeping the Main Thing The Main Thing
Fending Off the Flesh - Love Your Enemy
What Does It Mean To Be Born Again?
Seeking Spiritual Maturity (at Every Age)
Worry - Disobedience and Undue Burden
Corroded From The Inside, Out
You - YES YOU - Are a Child of God
Be Faithful in The Little Things
You - YES YOU - Are a Child of God
The saying is true. We are all God's Children.
1 John 3:1-3 1 "See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don't know God, so they don't understand that we are his children. 2 Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.” (NLT)
The fact that we are God's children is really one of the most challenging concepts for us to accept in this world. When we don't have a close relationship with God, it's easy to forget that we are his beloved ones, and that we can call God our Father. Those of us that don't know God are no less his children. He still loves us, but when we become believers, we are grafted into the family, and come to know God as our Father. Until we become believers, we are essentially lost children.
The sad thing is that not all of us want to be found. We're runaways, not orphans, but that doesn't mean that we're not God's children anymore. God still desires a relationship with us, no matter how many times that we run away. God will always take us back. It's all there in the story of the prodigal son, in Luke 15:11.
Now, a lot of you out there may be thinking, "Yeah, yeah. Are we back in Sunday school?" IF ONLY WE COULD BE SO LUCKY! We probably had a better grasp on the fact that God is our Father when we were kids in Sunday school. Now we have baggage and lies and all that distracting stuff that makes it more difficult to get it.
When we 'get it', we're freed from so much garbage. We can more easily rely completely on God. We have a new understanding of the all-powerfulness of God. There's no disillusionment that our dad can make mistakes. Our heavenly Father is perfect, and he has us in his hands. In our quiet time with God, we can crawl up in his lap and just let God love on us. That's why he created us in the first place, if you ask me. He just wants to love us.
So, what if we want to 'get it', but just can't get it through our outer layer of baggage? Do what an upset child does. Just cry out. Cry for your Father, and he'll come running to pull you out of the garbage that you've gotten into. Just let him wipe away your tears, fix your boo-boos, etc. In the case of a runaway, you just have to come home and ring the doorbell. God will fling the door open and wrap his arms around you without scolding you for what you've done. He's just glad to have his son or daughter back.
At the root of this matter is unconditional love. That could be an entire message by itself. But one of the layers of baggage that many of us have is that our earthly fathers put conditions on the love that he gave us. We found ourselves performing for dad's love. God's not like that. He doesn't need us to do anything for his love except to receive it. Legalism is a spiritual issue where we find ourselves trying to earn God's approval by following the rules - not sinning, praying daily for X number of minutes or hours. God doesn't need that to love you. He loves. No matter what. You have sin in your life? Join the club. Just let your Father hold you and love you. He'll show you what needs to happen next in your life after that.