"See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." 1 John 3:1-3
Children of God. Yes, we are children of God. What an awesome thought... that even I would be considered a child of God. None of us are perfect. We each have our flaws as humans. But yet, God still considers us His children. A bit mind-boggling, isn't it?
I think back to the last verse in chapter 2 of 1 John. It speaks of being "born of Him". To be born of Him is to live our lives showing similarities to God. Showing God's love to others, spending time in God's Word, spending time in prayer, developing our relationship with God. For the world to see that we are "born of Him" we must outwardly show traits that would have them think of God. Traits that would have them see God through us.
If we see ourselves as God sees us, as His children, shouldn't we also desire to show these traits to the world? To show them that we are God's children? That we are "born of Him"? Isn't it only natural that we want the world to know and to see God as we do so that they could share in this same love and same kinship with God?
Developing these traits is, of course, a process. We must first develop a strong relationship with God. We must grow and develop over time in our relationship with God. We must grow to the point where it is natural to reach out to others regularly and to show His love to the world around us. We must grow to the point where we spend special one-on-one time with God daily. As our relationship with God grows stronger and closer we do begin to be more and more like Him.
"...because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." I'm sure there is not one of us that wants to appear before Him one day and be ashamed of any aspect of our lives. Knowing that we will one day see Him, this alone should be a motivating factor to become more and more like Him. To purify ourselves "just as He is pure".
Children of God. Yes, we are children of God. What an awesome thought... that even I would be considered a child of God. None of us are perfect. We each have our flaws as humans. But yet, God still considers us His children. A bit mind-boggling, isn't it?
I think back to the last verse in chapter 2 of 1 John. It speaks of being "born of Him". To be born of Him is to live our lives showing similarities to God. Showing God's love to others, spending time in God's Word, spending time in prayer, developing our relationship with God. For the world to see that we are "born of Him" we must outwardly show traits that would have them think of God. Traits that would have them see God through us.
If we see ourselves as God sees us, as His children, shouldn't we also desire to show these traits to the world? To show them that we are God's children? That we are "born of Him"? Isn't it only natural that we want the world to know and to see God as we do so that they could share in this same love and same kinship with God?
Developing these traits is, of course, a process. We must first develop a strong relationship with God. We must grow and develop over time in our relationship with God. We must grow to the point where it is natural to reach out to others regularly and to show His love to the world around us. We must grow to the point where we spend special one-on-one time with God daily. As our relationship with God grows stronger and closer we do begin to be more and more like Him.
"...because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." I'm sure there is not one of us that wants to appear before Him one day and be ashamed of any aspect of our lives. Knowing that we will one day see Him, this alone should be a motivating factor to become more and more like Him. To purify ourselves "just as He is pure".
4 Thoughts Shared:
Oh, Melanie, what a beautiful post! What a blessing it is to be a child of God despite all of our flaws!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Oh how wonderful it is to born again in our God.
This is a nice lessons also thanks for sharing Blessings!
so good! thanks for speaking to my heart :o)
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