How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)
The love that the Father has lavished on us, to me means He held nothing back from us. God is extravagant and has bestowed an overabundance of His love, for us His children. We are not just the creatures that He created, we are His children. The love that He has for us is hard for us to comprehend or even begin to wrap our minds around. We are unable to love in the same way because of our sinfulness.
I don’t know about you but do you ever have those days where you feel unlovable. There are days when my mistakes seem unending, my actions unloving, and my words are unkind. On those days it is not like I wake up and say, “I’m going to have a rotten day and I am going to do my best to make sure everyone who crosses my path will be miserable too.”
You and I do have choice though; we can choose how we will respond the unpleasant circumstances that come our way. Let us start each day remembering how we are God’s children and that His love for us is unending. Since we are God’s children we are reflections of Him. God will give us the strength to glorify Him in all situations, even when we don’t feel like it.
And I know there will be those days when we are overwhelmed by the trials and tribulations of life. At those times our prayer will be, “God please help me to walk by faith and to live by hope.” Amen.