Are You a Child of God?

This is my second week of verse-mapping. I still love it. Join me in my journey each week, here on Mondays on A Bed of Roses…Thorns Included. I started traveling through John last week. You can find that post here

I’m changing it up a bit from last week. I realize some of you may not love the study of the Greek as much as I do. I have still included the meanings of a few words, for clarity. I’ve also added some thoughts.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

John 1:12-13 – But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. (NLT)

John 1:12-13 – But as many as received him, to them gave he [the] right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God. (Darby)

I’ll start with the practical and move to the thought-provoking. 🙂

Verse 12 –

  • accepted/received – to lay hold of actively or aggressively accepting what is offered
  • right – power, authority
  • children – child, dependent; implies living in full dependence on the Lord; illustrates the heart attitude of willing submission to Father’s plan
  • name – character/reputation
    • a name is a representation of a person and his character; it is inseparable from him/her…according to Hebrew notions

Romans 8:14 – For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
Galatians 3:26 – For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

 

Verse 13 – John 1.12-13

  • born – beget, produce offspring
  • will/passion – wish or desire
  • flesh – of human origin

John 3:6 – Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

1 Peter 1:23 – For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

What does it mean to be someone’s child?

For most of us, and for those who’ve gone before us, it means growing up under our parents’ tutelage, whether it be good or bad. We learn from our parents or, in some cases, learn from their mistakes. Hopefully.

In times past, a son would learn a craft at his father’s knee, while a daughter learned to keep house, cook, and care for young ones beside her mother.

Mannerisms, speech patterns, a certain way of doing things may not have been taught, but children take on those things simply because they are in contact with them regularly.

What then does it mean to be a child of God?

It means spending time in His presence, learning at His knee those things we need to lead a fulfilled life. Not everything we learn can be TAUGHT. Some things have to be caught by merely being with Him daily.

We start out as babes in Christ. When we’re that new, we truly do focus a great deal of attention on Him.

Then we grow older and hit those toddler years, and as many a two year old has declared over the years, we say, “I do it.” Or the ever willful, “No.”

That phase fades for a few years, and if we haven’t walked away, we feel like days pass and nothing really happens. We turn to the Father for assistance when things go wrong, but in general we ignore Him.

Here come the teen years…we definitely think we know it all now. Nothing can sway our belief. We are invincible. Until we fall.

The twenties bring us into another phase of ignoring Him. This may last only for a few years or may go on for much longer.

Then we come to the point where we understand how important a Father’s wisdom is, and we seek Him once more, digging deeper, desiring more, asking for more.

Obviously, this is not how it is with everyone. We all have different stories, different routes to which we’ve come to the Father, growing in our relationship with him, aching for his direction.

How about you? What do you think it means to be a child of God? Where are you in your journey–a toddler, trying to do it alone, or older, wiser, willing to “be still and know” that He is God?

Blessings,

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All verses are New Living Translation unless otherwise noted. All emphasis is mine. All Biblical research as done at Biblehub.com. Any mistakes are mine.

 

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