How
do we know whose children we really are?
I
have been visiting my parents in my childhood home for the last several weeks
while on Christmas break. It has become more and more clear that I am their
child in the last few years of my life. They say that in your 30s is when you
discover what it is you really want to take from your parents and what it is
you want to leave behind. My mother is a truly godly woman who seeks after her
relationship with God and values relationships in her words and actions. She
loves our daughter well and is active and engaged with her. I would like to
keep this in my life. My Father loves us dearly and he serves us through the
cooking of many meals and the giving of many gifts. He has a generous heart and
these are things that I want to keep. There are patterns of life that I do not
wish to keep and the reason I can recognize them is because they are in my own
life; times of compulsion, times of anger, times of worry. I have prayed many
times for the cloud of depression over our multiple family homes to be broken.
How
do I know that I am the child of my parents, because I have taken upon myself
their words and actions. My life is patterned after theirs. In some ways I am
different, but in many ways I am the same. In John chapter 8 Jesus confronts
the people around him with whose children they just might be. He gets very
blatant and strong about it actually. "You are not children of Abraham,
for Abraham looked forward to my coming, but instead you are children of the
devil, for you speak in lies and he is the father of lies." (Cory's
paraphrase) What does it mean to be children of God? Over and over again Jesus
says to be children of God we must accept his words, his teachings, and the
words of his Father.
One
of the unfortunate patterns of our family and for many families is the worry
over money and finances. Most people are concerned about how they will live.
For us is goes into our value as people and whether we are doing everything we
can to be good fathers and provide for our families. It is easy to become
obsessive about it and let is drag us down. I have spent many days is prayer
over this even just this morning. If I am to be the child of God then I am to
believe his words, the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount for example.
Don't worry about what you will wear or what you will eat, for you Father in
heaven knows what you need before you ask. Today has enough worries for itself.
To be a child of God I need to accept, believe, and act upon these words.
Our
fates will also follow the father that we choose. If we do not accept his
words, which is what it means to believe in him, then we will die in our sins.
Death is the fate of the devil and his children. But if we do accept his words
of truth then we will be set free "for if the son sets your free then you
are free indeed." Freedom and life are the future of God the Father and
his children.
Oh
Father, May we believe in your words today! May I live in the freedom of
depending on you to provide for the needs of our family! May we all be children
of God.
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