Dearly Loved Children

Dearly Loved Children

What is your image of your heavenly Father?

If you understand His love for you,

His image will shape yours.

Paul says we are to be imitators of God

as dearly beloved children.

I can understand that the child

that is greatly loved by his father

would want to be like his father. 

What I question is how do we

know we are dearly loved?

There is a good chance

that you know a father

that loves his child,

but the child can’t see it.

The expectations of the child

effects how the father is perceived.

Our heavenly Father is good,

but how do you and I feel when

we perceive that good things

are not happening in our lives?

  I remember as a little boy thinking

I was God’s favorite person

in the whole world.

He was my best friend

and He was always

there for me.

As I grew older,

I recognized that other people

were enjoying blessings I wished I had.

My thinking began to shift from being

the most special, 

to average,

to below average,

on God’s love scale for others.

I wanted to be the most loved,

and I based it on what was

happening in my life.

When I saw a sinner rewarded for evil,

and I seemed to suffer for doing good,

I got confused.

You and I can not afford

to get confused about

our Father’s love for us.

We can never forget His display of love

when He sent his Son to the cross

for everyone in the world.

Comparing what we have,

or don’t have,

with others is not wise.

So let’s take another look at

being dearly beloved children.

Let’s just accept that we are dearly beloved

and let’s do the things we believe

our Father in heaven wants to do for us.

Maybe we have been given so much

our Father in heaven

is now requiring more of us. 

Maybe God wants you and I

to give some of that love away so

we have room for some new love.

Let’s imitate what we believe

our Father’s love is to others

and see if we do not discover

a renewed and fresh

sense of His love in our lives. 

 

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV

5:1 Be imitators of God,

therefore,

as dearly loved children

2 and live a life of love,

just as Christ loved us

and gave himself up

for us as a fragrant offering

and sacrifice to God.

2 Corinthians 10:12-13 NIV

12 We do not dare to classify

or compare ourselves

with some who commend themselves.

When they measure themselves

by themselves

and compare themselves

with themselves,

they are not wise.