Heavenly Father loves you

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There are a myriad ways God demonstrates his love for us, but here are three for you to ponder this week…

1. Your Father Predestined You
Ephesians 1:4-5 even as he chose [elected] us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
The doctrine of predestination can be tricky. Trying to see where it fits in with faith and repentance can be confusing. Today I’m not going to try unscramble the Rubik’s cube of predestination; that you can find in other blogs by using the search bar. What I want you to savor today is the motive that fueled God’s predestination of people in the first place—his unfathomable love.
David was staggered by God’s foreknowledge. As he wondered in Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
God knew you and chose you and wrote a story for you…before you were born.
This is the beauty, excitement, and reassuring security of the vibrant doctrines of foreknowledge and predestination and election. God knew you and chose you before he made the world. He called you out by name before you were born, and pursued you with a passion to secure your inclusion in his family.
And why? Because God loves you.

2. Your Father Adopted You
Ephesians 1:4b-5 …In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
The doctrine of adoption is one of the most precious proofs of God’s love for us. Your salvation is not the result of some cold, theological equation; it is the climax of an epic love story.
God predestined us for adoption as sons and daughters because he loves us and this makes him our Father.
Remember when Jesus’ disciples asked him “Teach us to pray…”? Jesus didn’t say, “Just do what you’ve been doing, prayer is just a conversation.” No,… Luke 11:2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name.”

Paul gets giddy about this in Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Abba is how Hebrew kids say Daddy or Papa.

As cool as I thought it was that in To Kill a Mockingbird Scout Finch called her dad, Atticus, by his first name, I taught my kids to call me Dad. But then one day, at age seven, my daughter read a novel in which the children referred to their father as “Papa.” She promptly adopted the moniker for me and taught it to her two year old sister too. So my two boys call me Dad and my girls call me Papa. And it melts my heart. They could ask for a giraffe for Christmas and, as long as they say Papa, there’s a good chance they’ll get it.

You are fully God’s child and God is your Abba, your Papa…your daddy.
I understand that in public prayer gatherings we are praying corporately to God and that it is more appropriate to reserve our outbursts of personal rapture with our adoption to moments of private prayer. But when you are alone with God and pouring out your heart to him in prayer, it is a delight and a privilege that the Spirit in us causes us to cry out Abba or Papa.

The implications of God’s fatherhood and your adoption into his family are intensely practical. To know that you are a child of God should change the way you view the world: you have a Father who loves you and looks after you. Don’t get sucked into the spirit of fear by which most people live. They focus on the crime and the future employment of their children and corruption. These might all be real fears, but as a Christian this is different for you.
You are not a statistic, you are a child of God.
Just like you look out for the wellbeing of your own kids, so God looks out for his.
Matt 6:31-32 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

3. Your Father Gave His Son for You
Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
The pinnacle of God’s proof that he loves us is what he was willing to give to secure our adoption and to bring us into his family. He chose us because he loved us and it cost him the death of his Son.
So how is this going to change your life this very week? Does meeting with the saints to worship and fellowship get in the way of your week? Does your pastor need to guilt you into giving financially to God’s kingdom work? Do you find reading God’s word to be a chore?
If so, you have missed the love in the love letter. If God’s love for you isn’t enough to ignite a flame of zeal for his glory and good works and obedience and devotion and worship… nothing will rouse you from your apathy.
And if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, then you are not a child of God. But you can be.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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