Did you know that I was not always a child of God? That’s right. Yes, He created me and I was His creature… but not His child!
I was not always certain I was a true child of God.
And that 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.”
1 John 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 debt… 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 (Creator and Owner). 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?
Thank you so much for this post, I’m reading it this morning, Monday and it was answer to a question I’d presented to God in prayer. He always answers me quickly and he did this morning through your post. I don’t always leave a comment but I love your blog it’s always fill of beauty and interest.
You have referenced wrongly for this verse:
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.”
It’s 1 John 5:1, NOT James 5:1
Thanks for the correction, Sally!
Peace, love and grace to all those in Christ Jesus our Lord
I just want to say I believe you say that well, peace be with you
Thank you for using your blog to share the most important message any of us will ever hear. Lovingly put, beautifully said, and most of all TRUE.
Yvonne, faith and knowledge of Jesus’s words as you explained it today was so very moving. God has chosen you and your ministry here at Stonegable because you can explain his word in such a simple understanding way. Yes my friend you have been chosen by God please keep up the great work. I so look forward to each Sunday mornings bible study. God Bless.
Thank you for sharing the simplicity of the gospel. So thankful he bestows on us that “agape” love and he’s continually relentless in showing that. His love never fails. It was such a blessing to read your post today.
A very important message expressed so well. I pray that the Lord will use this to draw many and that many will become His child. Thank you, it is encouraging to us all living in Him
In the last portion of your teaching, you said “God’s idea of love and our idea of love may not be the same”. Can you go into more detail on that, please?
God, I believe, has been working in my life. I’m once again going to church regularly, reading the Bible, and praying for more than I had in past years. God has given me “signs”, if you will, that I think He is letting me know He is with me and hearing my prayers. That has made me want to stay strong in Him.
Still, it has been a struggle for me each day to accept everything. I believe Jesus was born of a virgin. I believe He died for the sins of all mankind. I believe He was raised from the dead on the third day, and that He ascended into Heaven where He is today. I’m like the man in Mark 9:24 whose daughter has died. He asks Jesus to heal his unbelief. Even though he knows and believes Jesus can do it, there’s still something holding him back in that belief.
DEAR FREIND, most people would love to have your faith! I have prayed that same Mark 9:24 prayer over and over. Believing is not about “feeling” at all! It’s knowing. It’s a choice. It’s a choice to put your faith and life in what you know to be true (from the Bible). Our feelings can be so so fickle and cannot be trusted. We need to believe, not in OUR power to believe but BELIEVE in the power of Jesus!
Don’t worry… Jesus says that the faith of a mustard seed can move mountains. And you have much more faith than that.
Here’s something else… God is Incomprehensible… meaning that God is so much MORE than us that we can never comprehend or understand Him fully. This is part of His character, or who He is! He is GOD after all. But, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit we can know God pretty well. Amazing! We can’t possibly know the thoughts of God and who He fully is, but we can see who He is and How much He loves us through Jesus! Jesus said, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” Again, AMAZING!
As far as love… here’s a post that might help… http://www.stonegableblog.com/sunday-scripture-what-is-love/
May God show himself BIG in your life sweet friend! xo
We (HIS Children) are born twice to die once. Praise HIS name!
I am his and i know it. Oh what a joy huh !! Bless you and all here . xx
Thank you so much for your faith posts. Always such encouragement! I, too, love Jesus, and as believers we are to encourage and build each other up! So thank you for your sweet posts and reminders!!
You are such a blessing to me & to others! Never stop teaching and sharing your faith! It is so needed! Also many thanks for your daily blog & Facebook posts, I so look forward to them!! Sending heartfelt cheer to you, our Jesus Girl! If you haven’t seen the new Proverbs 31 Ministry app for First5 do so. It is wonderful & blessing me & others!
Again you have written about such an important part of scripture and one that is often misunderstood. Thank you for being faithful to share the gospel with your readers and explaining scripture with scripture.
This part of your response above is a great summary! ” The great news is that Salvation and the ability to be adopted into the the family of God is a free gift. Offered lavishly TO EVERYONE by a loving God that longs to be our Father! The cross made it possible for us to restore a relationship with God that He had purposed from before the beginning of the world, but we lost through original sin!”
AMEN….I love your Sunday blog. Witnessing for GOD is what GOD wants all of us to do. When you are GODS child you live every minute putting GOD first In your sayings and actions. GOD IS LOVE. The Holy Spirit guides you……not SATAN
Thank you, Yvonne for your post. It is so important for those who have accepted Christ into their lives don’t just leave it there. We must continue to seek out how God wants us to live by studying the Scriptures. A Child of God with an unopened bible is not growing and is missing the blessings God has for us. Keep up the Lord’s work.
Thank you for sharing!
This is such a good example to tell my 2nd graders that I teach in Sunday School. We are his creations – until we believe and accept Christ in our heart – then we are his child, A simple way for them to understand. It is up to each one of us to make that choice. Thanks for your Sunday devotions.
This was a blessing to read today!
Oh, the joys of knowing Christ as our personal Lord and Savior!!! I cannot imagine my life without HIM. Thanks for always being so full of truth and being such a witness. Happy week!
This is so good. It is so refreshing for a blogger to blog about Christ and His Word. I love your blog and you have become a real friend
Thanks, friend!!!
As I pondered what you said, I thought of 1 Corinthians 15 – a chapter jammed with scriptural jewels. In verses 1-4 Paul declares the gospel “by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” The importance of Christ’s resurrection can be found in verses 12-26 of 1 Corinthians 15 also. Just wanted to add this to what you’ve already said. Blessings, Janet
Janet, so glad u addressed that death, burial and resurrection are all three important for salvation.
Amen!!!
Thank you for such a simple explanation of this amazing truth! I was also born of God years ago, but I did not realize how much He really loves me, loves us, until some time later – a fact that has made all the difference in my life! I am still leaning and still learning to lean on His great great love! Thank you for this wonderful post!
Thank you for these words! So very thankful that I’m a child of God! 🙂 ~Rhonda
I AM HIS!
First Cindy so glad your kitty is back home safe and sound…Again Yvonne what a great message…I think we sometimes make it harder to understand what the Lord wants of us…if we just remember we are a small child to him and never ment to fully understand everything…this would help us to accept how simple it is to follow Christ…
Thank you for my Sunday School lesson today., Yvonne – I need this so badly. My husband has just been daignosed with a horrible cancer and I know God has led us here to these wonderful perfectly correct doctors for a reason. We are His children. He will not foresake us. You affirmed that for me today.
Bless you and your husband Diane! I’m praying for your and your husband! May God manifest Himself big in your lives!
I enjoy your Sunday morning teachings. They are my Sunday school. Thank you and bless you.
Yes Yvonne, I too once was not a child of God, I too knew I was born of God but there was no real connection. He carried me through so mighty rough years, at the time I did not know that I was being taught that I didn’t have to have those rough times, that He would be there for me to lean on and know that it is He that I am leaning on to see me through the rest of my life. Your words brought all of this out of me today, yesterday I was shown 1John’s true meaning and now today you speak of it too – blessings – blessings all around. Thank you Jesus for this woman – child of God. God bless you Yovonne and all who read your inspiring words.
Thank you Yvonne! Another gift from such an excellent teacher! I’m sure your words today will bless many people as they have reminded each of His truth for His believers! Amen and Rejoice!
We are all children of God. That is the reason for the Cross. What separates Christians from non Christians is that we have been gifted by God with a knowledge of His Divinity, a recognition that he is the Holy Creator. Because of this our whole perspective changes and we give him the glory for all in our lives. Those who have not been given the gift of Salvation in this life are still His children, they just don’t know it yet! But He will save all because that is His Desire and He is totally and completely mighty to save.! He will not rest until all of the sheep have been found.
Hi Veronika.
You are on the right track, about Salvation but we need to read and understand what God word says about being a child of God…
God’s word does not teach that we are all His children. WE are all part of His creation. Here is an example from the book of John that show us that.
The Pharisees and Jesus were having an argument about who’s children they were. The Pharisees were claiming to be children of Abraham and Jesus was saying that if they were offspring (spiritual) of Abraham they would do the deeds of Abraham. In other words, they would believe Jesus. Because we see in Genesis that “Abram believed and it was accounted to Him as righteousness”.
The Pharisees continued to press this point and Jesus says…
“Jesus said to them, If God were your Father you would love Me, for I proceed forth and have come from the Father, for I have not even come on My own initiative but He (God) sent Me. (He sent Jesus to die for our sins)
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.
You are from your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” John 8:42-44
People cannot be the sons of the devil and of God, can they? No, of course not!
The book of Romans talking about how belief in Jesus transfers us from the bondage and family of Satan INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD BY ADOPTION…
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God (given at Salvation… non believers do not have the Spirit in them… BUT IT IS ALWAYS OFFERED TO THEM), THESE ARE THE SONS OF GOD. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of ADOPTION as sons by which we cry out, Abba (Hebrew for Daddy… intimate word) Father!
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.(occurring when we accept Christ as Savior) Romans 8:14-16
And we see this very clearly in 1 John. There are so so many scriptures that address this because the theme of the book of 1 John is… THAT YOU MAY KNOW YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD.
“By this the children of of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness (only can be done through Jesus Christ)is not of God nor the one who does not love his brother (agape love: God’s love).” 1 John 3:10.
It is important to KNOW and UNDERSTAND what the Word of God says… and believe it.
The great news is that Salvation and the ability to be adopted into the the family of God is a free gift. Offered lavishly TO EVERYONE by a loving God that longs to be our Father! The cross made it possible for us to restore a relationship with God that He had purposed from before the beginning of the world, but we lost through original sin!
I hope this helps! Blessings and love to you today!
Thank you for this truth!! Amazing to be loved and be His child!
He’s back! Thank you Lord!
So glad your cat came home! Those little pets can worry us to pieces!! ☺️
Words so sweetly spoken to my heart! Yvonne, thank you for today’s message and encouragement. It was just what I needed. 🙂
Great word,! Amen,
Be Blessed
Thank you for your post! I am glad I am not alone, I just realized that I was a child of God 5 years ago, 3 days after my 50th birthday. After growing up in the Catholic church I don’t remember it being stressed that we belong to God and that everything we are and HAVE belongs to him and that he will never fore sake us. I found this out at 50yrs 3days when I was shaken to the core. I felt my knees buckle and my head was spinning suddenly a wave of peace washed over me and an unbelievable clarity over the situation I was facing. God is LOVE,always with us and absolutely AMAZING!
Yvonne:
Beautiful Post and THANK YOU.
Amen!please pray that are beautiful farm cat will come back to us! He did not show up for his breakfast! We are putting this in Gods hands! Thank you!cindy
Yvonne, I thank God for you. I belong to Jesus, too, and I think you are doing such a beautiful job with your blog and and ministry. You are anointed.
God Bless you today for speaking out such simple truth!