Children of God (1 John 3:1)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God…
– 1 John 3:1
What a verse that I think if we’re not careful, we can take for granted—that God calls us his children and calls himself our Father.
This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from J.I. Packer in Knowing God. It’s one of my favorite books outside of the Bible. But in that book, he writes a chapter on the fatherhood of God and the doctrine of adoption. It’s an incredible chapter. And he asks at one point, “What is a Christian?” It’s just the most basic question. “What is a Christian?”
Then he writes,
…the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father. If you want to know how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
And that makes me think about John Wesley and his story, his testimony. So, listen to Wesley’s story. He graduated with honors from Oxford University. He was ordained as a minister in the Church of England. His theology was grounded in God’s Word. His faith was active in the world: he distributed food and clothing to families and orphans in slums. He visited inmates in prisons and workhouses in London. He studied the Bible deeply, daily, diligently. He attended multiple worship services every Sunday, in addition to other services during the week. He prayed, fasted regularly, gave generously and sacrificially to the poor. He even moved as a missionary to what was then the British colony of Georgia to work among Native Americans.
Yet after all of that—everything I mentioned—he came back to England. After serving, he wrote in his journal, “I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God.” In other words, Wesley said, “I wasn’t even a Christian.” He had gone to college, studied the Bible, worshiped, fasted, prayed, preached, gave, and moved overseas as a missionary, but he didn’t know Christ.
And then he went on to say, “I had the faith of a servant, but not that of a son.” Just let that soak in for a moment.
Yes, of course, the Bible refers to us as servants of Jesus, slaves of Jesus. But even more fundamental than that, we are sons and daughters of God. Do you see yourself this way in relationship with God as your Father? Is this the thought that prompts and controls your worship and your prayers and your whole outlook on life: that you are God’s child and you have God as your Father?
Oh God, we praise you for making us your children through faith in Jesus, your Son. We praise you for the privilege, the honor, the joy, the wonder of being not just citizens in your kingdom, but children in your family.
God, I pray over my own life and every single person who is praying with me right now, who knows you as Father. We pray that this reality would prompt and control our worship, our praying, and our whole outlook in life. And knowing what a perfect Father you are, we pray that you would help us to lead others to join the family, to lead others around us to come to know you as Father.
A Prayer for the Uzbek People
And God, we pray that others around the world would come to know you as Father. We pray for the Uzbek people of Uzbekistan, specifically northern Uzbeks, thirty-five million of them, most of whom have little to no knowledge of who Jesus is and how he has paid the price for their sins, that they might be adopted into your family. God, bring them into the family, we pray. We pray that you would bring northern Uzbek people, and we pray that you would use our lives and our resources toward that end among northern Uzbeks and all the nations. We pray all this in light of your word, which we love in 1 John 3:1, as your children, to you, our Father. In Jesus’ name, amen.
