Children of God

I doubt a five year old prince or princess really appreciates being in a royal family. Perhaps they even dislike it at times, because they don’t see the good of it, and they mostly feel the constraints and limitations it places on them. But they can´t get away from it. They were born into a royal family. However, later they will probably see the privileges they have and come to appreciate them. These privileges were always there, even when they didn’t understand them.

We weren’t given the privilege of having royal blood. We were ordinary people, with little to boast of. Then the unbelievable happened! God Almighty bestowed on us the standing of being His beloved children! We weren’t born into it, we didn’t deserve it, we didn’t have the qualifications for it, and yet it happened: We gained the right to call ourselves the children of God. It’s not even that we ourselves took that name for ourselves, but God Himself called us His children.

We could be regarded as presumptuous, or mistaken in using such a name, but not God! He is ‘the truth’, and what He says is true. He made a promise. ‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God’ (John 1:12). If God says you’re His beloved child, all the blessings and privileges of being a child of God are yours, even if you don’t yet fully comprehend them. They’re all there, waiting for you to find out how blessed you are.

When you walk through the dark and difficult circumstances of loss and loneliness, and when it seems that nobody’s there to comfort you, your Father cares, because you’re His beloved child. When you have to go through a time of unexpected needs and adverse experiences, your Father is there with you, because you’re His beloved child. When health and strength fail, and you find it very hard to cope with life’s demands, does your Father forsake you? No, because you’re still His beloved child. As His children we all have the privilege of enjoying His presence all the time. Not because we deserve it, but because He’s lavished His love on us, and made us His very own children.

What should our response be? Certainly not childishly complaining about the limitations this relationship causes, but a trusting whisper “Abba, Father!” We walk as His children, we rest as His children, and yes, even when we sleep, we’re His children. It’s not something that’s ours because we hold on to it, but because we’ve been given the standing of being God’s children. And the greatest privilege of being a child is having a Father, a Father who cares, and he’s Your Father today!