Walk around any bookshop and you’ll discover an array of books on parenting. Advice abounds on a multitude of childrearing topics. Yet, surely, our children’s greatest need is to be loved. That’s how they measure their worth within the family and how they know they belong. Love creates acceptance, engenders trust, builds character, and gives security. Love is not a fickle feeling; it’s a living reality.
The apostle John wrote graphically about the extravagance with which our Heavenly Father loves His children. God the Father neither skimps nor leaves us wondering. Instead, He lavishes—smothers, heaps, pours—His love on us. John tells us, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1) Later John states, “That the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world” (4:14). That is love demonstrated, not merely expressed—poured out on us by Christ when He died on the cross for our salvation. It’s what transforms sinners into children of God!
And just to make sure we get it, that we understand we’re God’s children, John adds, “And that’s what we are!” (3:1). Rest in it. Don’t doubt it. Believe God loves you, and embrace all He has for you, for His love didn’t stop at the cross. It continues each and every day until we reach the Father’s House . . . and then for all eternity.
By Catherine Campbell
REFLECT & PRAY
What might cause you to doubt the Father’s love for you? How would you explain God’s extravagant love to someone else?
Heavenly Father, I am overwhelmed by Your great love for me. Thank You for sending Jesus to die on the cross to enable me to become part of Your family.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In addition to 1, 2, and 3 John, the apostle John also wrote the gospel of John and Revelation. In today’s text he describes how one day we’ll see Christ with our own eyes (1 John 3:1–2). He also includes some mysterious phrases: “What we will be has not yet been made known” and “when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (3:2). Genesis 1:27 says, “God created mankind in his own image.” So, aren’t we already like Him? Yes, and yet not fully. Romans 8:29 tells us we’re being “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son.” God is transforming us through the process of sanctification, and this process won’t be complete until we’re in His presence. On that day, we will be perfect like Jesus and sin will plague us no more.
Alyson Kieda
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