HOW TO BE CERTAIN YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD

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I was not always certain I was a true child of God. 

This really bothered me. I thought that if I was a child of God I should know. Not just guess I was... or think I was...or have someone else tell me I was. Shouldn't I be certain of this very basic and very important fact?

Yes, I needed to be certain and I hope you do too...

Most of us know who are father's are here on earth. We are all born with fathers.

It's the same, in an interesting way, with God! 

God created all things... so every person is a creature of God. But not every person is a child of God.

God's children are born of Him too... but born in a spiritual sense!

I don't know about you, but I would not happy just being a creature of the God of the universe... I want to be His child.

The good news is, we can know for certain that we are a child of God.  To see the criteria for being a child of God we need to go to the book of 1 John.

What a wonderful little book in the bible... jammed packed with tremendous truths!

It just so happens that the theme of 1 John is.... 

THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD

I love that God wanted us to know this for certain too!

Here is how we can know...

"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him."

James 5:1

What God is saying through the words of the "apostle whom Jesus loved" is this... that if you believe that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah of the Jews and that He came to planet earth and died on the cross for your sins because you cannot possibly pay your sin dept... YOU ARE HIS CHILD!

That's it!

You are a child of God if you have believed... a belief that causes you to surrender your life to Jesus as your LORD. A belief that keeps on believing and keeps on surrendering to your LORD.

If you do this you are ...

born of God

In other words,. God's child!

If we are God's child we will love our heavenly Father. It is the only possible response to His saving grace!  But that's not all... we will also love His other children.

We will love other Christians! This is the sign that we are a child of God. Loving! 

Now here's something interesting... God's idea of love and our idea of love may not be the same.

We need to dig into the Word and discover what God's love looks like and then do it!

So now you know! 

God wants all of us to be His child.  He is waiting with open arms and salvation for all his human creatures.

Will you run into them and be His child?

Happy Fathers Day Abba!