Being God's Children

I John 3:1 "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him."

 

I love when a verse, one single verse of God's precious Word, holds so many messages!  This verse begins by celebrating the awesome and nearly incomprehensible fact that we are called God's children!  The God who is larger than the heavens, who existed before time, who created time, has blessed us to be called His children!  For me it is the ultimate "warm fuzzies" feeling...you know that feeling you get when someone tells you a special story and you start to get chills up and down?  Yeah, it's like that when I really focus on what it really means to be called a child of God.  It means we are defined not by who we are but by whose we are.  We are God's, His creation, His children, His love for us is greater than any love in the history of history!  The other message that this verse holds for me is in the last sentence of it.  Have you ever felt like no one "got" you?  The people at work, school, in the grocery store, or wherever you had to go outside of church...did you ever feel almost like an outsider?  I feel that John is telling us that when we are truly living for God then the "world," or more precisely all who are of the world, does not understand us at all because they do not know God and His love and what it is to be loved by Him.  The Bible tells us not to be of the world because the world is just this temporary home for us, He's preparing His mansion for us in heaven.  While the "world" may not know us, our church family does because they "get" what it is to be called children of God.  This is why it is so important to have our fellowship with those who do know us because they will give us a good foundation in God...we'll need that when we go out in the world for God expects us to share with the world His good news so that everyone has a chance to have God's love lavished upon them and know this ultimate "warm fuzzy" of being called His children.  Let's pray together:

 

Dear Father,

It is nearly overwhelming the love which You have given to us to bless us with being called Your children.  Thank You for this blessing!  Please help us to share Your love with others of this world so that they too may know the amazing feeling of truly belonging to You.  Father we continually thank and praise You for our clergy. We ask that You may please keep them in Your blessing that they may continue to rightly teach us Your Word.  God we also ask that You please grant Your extraordinary protection and supernatural blessings to our service men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us from those who would harm us...please grant that Your favor may go before them and completely surround them daily.  Lord, we are fully aware that Your healing is the true and only healing that we need.  We've come to realize there are many who we love and cherish that are in special need of Your miraculous healing hand for physical, emotional and spiritual healing.  We come to You today and ask that You may grant Your healing to Summer, Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, Amber & Michael, Ward and all those who we individually name to you now...  Please wrap them each in a Spiritual hug of Your comfort and peace.  Finally, we lift up to You Mike, Deanna and Lauren and ask that You please grant Mike & Deanna peace and hope as they await Lauren's birth and also please grant Lauren a safe arrival and a healthy, long life devoted to You.  We ask all these things may be done yet not according to our wants but according to Your will.  In Jesus name.  Amen. 

Have a blessed week ahead!

Love through Christ,

Niki