What does it mean to be God’s child? How do we become His children? How can His children live with hope?
Good morning. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which is ramping up in Canada, this series of short reflections is my attempt to help you see God’s promises with unveiled eyes, and believe with unveiled hearts, as you turn to Him.
Each post will reflect on a thought from a collection of Scripture verses that I use as a daily devotional aid.
Today I want to explore the powerful words of John 1:12-13
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God—
children born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
If you have received Jesus as Lord and believed that He is God’s promised Messiah, the Saviour of the World, then God considers you His child.
The little guy in the photo is my grandson Josiah. I love him fiercely, just as I love all my children and grandchildren. I have a strong desire to protect them from harm and to see their lives blessed.
This is how God feels towards those who are His children by faith in Jesus. He fights for us. He wants us to live in hope. He is on our side, for us and not against us.
Being His child doesn’t mean you will never have trouble in this life. In fact, Jesus assured his disciples of exactly the opposite. In this world you will have trouble, he said. But then he added, Take heart, for I have overcome the world.
We will have trouble because the wonderful, amazing world that God created is also a broken place, marred by sin and the curse that is on creation since our first parents turned away from God. We will also have trouble specifically because of our decision to follow Jesus. But we who belong to Him can also have hope, because Jesus rose from the dead and has put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, a foretaste of our heavenly inheritance, guaranteeing what is to come. And so we can be confident that our God is with us and we have an eternal future with Him in the Age to Come. He has given us the power to live in hope, and so we can also live in love that conquers fear.
If you already believe in Jesus, I want to encourage you today to take that hope that is in you because of him, dust it off and let it shine. If you don’t believe in Him yet, or not any more, I want to encourage you to turn to Him with your whole heart, ask Him to forgive you of your failures and your stubborn independence, and place your life in His hands. He is waiting for you. God bless you.
