See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him. 1 John 3:1
It does not take long to flashback to middle school gym class, where you are standing in a line waiting to be chosen for a kickball team. Just the mention of this makes my heart start racing. It makes me want to run away and hide. You see, I was always one of the last people chosen. I cannot blame my classmates, after all I am not very athletic. That feeling, being one of the last to be selected for a team or project, is never a positive one. This is because we all want to be chosen. We all want the feeling of being picked first and wanted, and when we are chosen last, we feel rejected. The truth is that we are not rejected. In fact, we have been chosen by God, and what He says about us is what matters more than anything else.
1 John chapter 3 begins with this proclamation: "See how very much our father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!" (verse 1). The NIV translation of this verse says it this way when describing God's love for His children: "See what great love the father has lavished on us." This kind of love God has for His children is lavish. He has poured it out for us. Why? Look back at 1 John 3:1. He has lavishly loved us because we are His children.
My friend, the news that we are His children, is the best news we could ever receive. Being God's child has a number of incredible implications. The first is this: We are chosen by God. You see, it is only because God willingly sent Jesus, His only Son, to come to Earth and die for our sins, that we can be restored as children of God. This means that God, calling us and making us His children, was a deliberate act.
You are chosen, my friend, and you have a place to belong. Regardless of how many times that you were chosen last for the kickball team in middle school, regardless of how many times you have felt like someone's second (or third, or fourth) choice, you are chosen by the King of Kings, as His child. You have a place to belong. May you find great comfort in this truth today!
Sometimes our hearts need a reminder that God has chosen us and that He is with us, and that is what matters more than anything else. Spend some time today listening to the song Who You Say I Am by Hillsong Worship. As you listen to this song, reflect on the truths sung in these words and the fact that you are chosen and loved by God.
Read 1 John 1:1-6 (NLT)
We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.
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