Once a Child Always a Child
Weekly Overview:
As children of the Most High God, we have been granted access to unconditional, tangible, and perfect love. All we need we have in relationship with our Father in heaven. He longs to reveal himself to us as a loving, real Father. He longs for us to live in the fullness of restored relationship with him. He longs for us to experience his vast and limitless affections. May we grow in our understanding and experience of God as our good and loving Father this week as we look at what it is to be his child.
Scripture:“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” - John 10:28
Devotional:
As a disciple of Jesus we have full assurance of eternal, face-to-face relationship with our heavenly Father. John 10:27-30 says,
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.
Once we have become a child of God by confessing with our mouth and believing in our heart that Jesus Christ truly is Lord of all, we are the child of God forever (Romans 10:9). No sin, struggle, trial, or rebellion can pluck us from the Father’s hand. And as children of God, we no longer look to this world but to our total restoration, redemption, and glorification as our source of hope.
There is peace and transcendent joy in the truth that this world is not our final resting place. Your pains and trials are temporary and pale in comparison to the incredible life that awaits you in heaven with your Father. Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rest in the fact that you are fully and constantly loved by your Creator. Nothing you or anyone else could ever do has the power to pluck you from his hand. God made salvation as simple and complete as possible. Once you have been saved and brought into the kingdom of God, you are forever saved.
Titus 3:4-7 says, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Your salvation is about the grace of your Father, not your own works. If salvation ever became about our own strength, it would cease to be rooted in God’s loving grace and rest on our shoulders instead of the death of Jesus.
Placing our hope in eternal relationship with our Father is the path to freedom from the cares and burdens of this world. We will never truly know abundant life until we live surrendered to our King and Savior and lay the crowns and cares of this life at his feet. This world is not your home. This world is not meant to be your highest satisfaction. Pursue greater depths of relationship with your Father and watch as the stress and cares of the world fall off in light of his glorious grace. Place your hope in him alone, and follow his leading to an abundant life free from the worries, doubts, and fears that come from living for the world instead of Jesus.
Guided Prayer:
1. Meditate on God’s promise of your eternal salvation as a believer. Allow Scripture to guide you to place your hope in the Father alone.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” - John 10:27-30
“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” - Romans 10:8-10
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” - Ephesians 2:8-9
2. Where have you been placing your hope? What have you been pursuing as your source of satisfaction apart from Jesus?
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” >Jeremiah 17:7
3. Take time to confess and surrender any ways in which you have been seeking satisfaction over Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you place your hope and trust in God alone.
“‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’” - Lamentations 3:24
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” - Romans 15:13
May Romans 5:2-5 ignite a lifestyle of continual surrender and pursuit of restored relationship with your Father:
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Extended Reading: John 10
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