No.45.Appreciating Our Father God.
Yesterday we were thanking our heavenly Father for all the things that He does for us, so today I felt that we really needed to look again at the biggest thing of all that we have to thank Him for, and that is that we have been bought with a price, and can now tell both ourselves and the world that we are His beloved children, with all the benefits and blessings that that brings to us.
Children throughout the bible are considered to be a great blessing, and so when we are told that we are now ‘the children of God’ we can see, by inference, that we have a new identity and a great inheritance. I am going to write out in full the wonderful verses 1John 3:2 from The Passion Translation.
‘Look with wonder at the depth of the Fathers’ amazing love that He has lavished on us! He has called us and made us His very own beloved children. The reason the world doesn’t recognize who we are is that they didn’t recognize Him. Beloved, we are Gods’ children right now; however it is not apparent what we will become. But we do know that when it is finally made visible, we will be just like Him, for we will see Him as He truly is’.
That we can call Him ‘Father’ is in itself an amazing thing. We haven’t been ‘saved’ to go and work ‘below stairs’ in God’s household as a servant. We are not even just visitors allowed to come and stay if we behave well, but we are fully accepted members of the household of God, Ephesians 2:19 with all the love, benefits and authority that that confers on us.
This gets even more exciting when we read Pauls’ take on what happened when we were ‘born again’. He writes, ‘For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry “Abba , Father”. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are Gods’ children. Now if we are children then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share His sufferings that we may also share in His glory. Roman 8:15-17.
If you go to Israel you will hear the children using that beautiful word ‘Abba’. It’s a very intimate word for Father, much more like our word ‘Daddy’ than the more formal ‘Father’ that is translated at the beginning of the Lords’ prayer. Furthermore, it is Gods’ spirit within us that enables us to use that beautiful term of endearment. It all speaks to us of such total acceptance by our Heavenly Abba.
Let us never lose the wonder of all this ‘truth’. So today let us muse on these things. Let us thank Him with all our hearts that He has brought us into His family through Christ, and that we are now safe and secure under His Fatherly care. Let me show Him how grateful I am, and how much I appreciate what He has done for me in allowing me to become His beloved child, His treasure.
In the words of Stuart Townend 1995
How deep the Fathers’ love for us, How vast beyond all measure,
that He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.
Amazing!!
