Child of God

2 Corinthians 6:18 I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

The problem that most people have with thinking of God as a Father is that we as fathers have given them the wrong view of God. We always hear that the earthly father is a reflections of the Heavenly Father. I like the way Louie Giglio talks about our Heavenly Father. "God is not a reflection of your earthly father He is the perfection of your earthly father." God is so much more than what any of us as fathers could reflect but satan knows he can use that distortion to turn us from God instead of running to God. If you have a view of God that He does not care, or that He might strike you down or that He left you, then why would you go to Him? So if we are going to be a child of God then there are a few things you have to understand about your relationship with God.

1) Once a Child always a child.

If you have a child that runs away from home does that mean they are no longer your child? Before we go any further just because you think you are a child of God does not mean you are. So before you apply this attribute of who God says you are to your life you need to make sure you are a child of His. But if you are then you can rest in the fact that you cannot be "Dechild" (yes I made that word up)


Romans 8:38-For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I heard a Christian Comedian talk about God like a GPS. If you do not listen to your GPS because you know better and you go somewhere you did not intend to be, the GPS does not jump out of the car it just recauluates. God always takes you where you are to where you need to be. Once you accept the free gift of salvation and you become His child, there is nothing that can take that away.

2) You are adopted not had

Ephesians 1:4-6 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

If you see a woman who is pregnant you ask her "what are you having". (Before asking any woman what she is having it is vitally important that you know for sure she is pregnant. Failure to do so could lead you to experience physical harm.) If you are a child of God then you are adopted. Do you see the difference? One is what are you having? (no choice) One is being adopted. (God picked you) If you are adopted did you know you were chosen by your parents? My mom had me and did not have a choice in what she was getting. God knew what He was getting when He adopted me as His child and He knew all of my faults ahead of time so when I do not do what I know I am supposed to do, He does not kick me out on the street. So if you are adopted into the love of God and become His child, you never have to worry about losing that love or your status as a child.

3) God really likes you
I know it sounds funny using the word like instead of the word love, but God does enjoy being with you. Sometimes we think of God loving us as something He has to do. Going back to our parents they will always love us but they get frustrated with our actions. Because of that we do not always have the view that God really wants to spend time with us as His children.

Zephaniah 3:17The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

Do you picture God singing over you? Can you picture God singing? He created singing. He delights in you and He will even sing songs to you to let you know about how much He loves you. Yes God will sing you a love song.

4) Daddy is His name

Jesus really shook things up with this concept of God. The Jews had such a reverence for God that they would not even spell His whole name. Jesus was showing that God wants to be so close to you in a relationship that you will call Him daddy. (The other extreme is a danger if you do not revere God but for now we are focusing on what Jesus said about Him)

Matthew 6:9 This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,

Do you start your prayers with Daddy? Jesus did. That is how He said we should pray. If a child brings their daddy a broken toy a loving daddy will take it and try to fix it. The child with tears in their eyes will say "Daddy Broken", as they hold the toy up. The loving daddy will reach down and take the toy and go to work. But you also know that there are times when a loving daddy cannot fix the toy (of course God always could if He chose to) so what does the loving daddy do then? He picks the child up and holds the child and comforts the child.

Do you see God as a God who reaches down and holds you when all of life seems broken?

Matthew 6:25-26 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

As a child you did not worry about your mortgage payment, the electric bill, the car payment or even the amount spent on groceries. You thought of things like playing and cartoons. When we get the view of God as daddy we realize that He will take care of those things. As children we trust our parents to handle all of those things and Jesus is showing us that God as daddy will take care of all of it.

5) God will give spankings

I know spankings are not something that is a popular notion anymore but when I was a child it was, and I deserved everyone I recieved. My parents loved me so much it hurt. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for the discipline and training I recieved as a child. I hated it at the time but now I see the results of children who did not recieve discipline as a child.

Hebrews 12:7-11 7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

6) God wants you to change your view of Him

In Luke 15 we see the story of the prodigal son. To us this story may not be as big of a deal but in Jesus day He took a common story and changed the ending. In the Jewish tradition the Jewish father would banish the son away from the house and the family as punishment for leaving the family. When Jesus told it he showed the Father running to the son, hugging him while the son was still filthy, and throwing a party for the son. Jesus whole point was to change how people viewed God. If you have the wrong view of God then you will not relate to Him the way you should.

Have you ever had someone talk negative about someone and after you meet that person you do not think they are that bad? Why? You had the wrong view of them until you really got to know them because someone tainted your view of them. People have the wrong view of God because others have given them the wrong view of God. So before you start saying how God acts, how He is and how He operates, you should ask Him for yourself. He has written a whole book about Himself so you can get to know Him. Just like you would not want anyone talking about you who did not know you, we need to go to the source in the Bible to see who God really is.

What view of God do you have that is not who He really is? Have you found yourself over the years changing your view of God? If you are not sure about some things of God then go to the source.