NOVEMBER 23 READING…1 JOHN 3
You know what is incredible? God loves us! He shows that love in calling us to be His children. The impact of who our Father is that we are unknown by the world…they don’t know Him, so they can’t know us. We are very strange to the world. We don’t think like them, nor should we act like them…we should think like our Father, and we should act like the children of God. Knowing that we are God’s children should always move us to holiness. Those who continually practice sin are lawless individuals. Jesus came to take away our sins, for if we are in Him sin is no longer our identity. Those who continually live in sin, do not know God…rather they belong to the devil. It is a lie to say that we can genuinely come to Jesus and live any way we like. If we are truly in Christ, we will live the way He likes. Maybe not perfectly, but we will desire to live in righteousness, and in Christ that desire will begin to show itself in the way we live. John makes it clear, this is how you know who are those who are the devil’s children, and those who are the children of God. The devil’s children do not practice righteousness. It will be the practice of righteousness the reveals the children of God.
Don’t be surprised if the world hates you as a child of God. Why wouldn’t they…for they are haters of God. So, it makes sense that they would hate you and me, because they hate our Father. If you have to have everyone like you, then don’t become a Christian…in the day your trust in Jesus, you will set yourself against this ungodly world. That being said, we are commanded to love our brothers and sisters in Christ…it is the evidence that we love God, and that we belong to God. We are to share what we have been blessed with by God with our brothers and sisters in need. Love is more than words or a feeling…love is demonstrated by action. God is such a good Father that He listens when we speak to Him, and He answers our prayers. God loves us so much that He has given us His Son Jesus, in order that we might be reconciled with Him…and He has given us His Holy Spirit that we might walk right in Him.
Please share your thoughts from today’s reading.
TOMORROW’S READING…1 JOHN 4