See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God and so we are.
– 1 John 3:1
Yes, this is who we are. For all who trusted in Jesus as the Savior and Lord of your life, this is your identity today. You are a child of God. You have God as your Father.
1 John 3:1 teaches us our identity as God’s beloved children.
I’m almost positive I’ve shared this before in one of these Pray the Word episodes. But it’s one of my favorite quotes so I’m sharing it again, it’s from J. I. Packer, his book, Knowing God, one of the most influential books in my life for sure. The chapter he writes on adoption and the fatherhood of God is worth the whole book. But I mean every other chapter is awesome too. But he asks the question, what is a Christian? And he answers it.
He says, the richest answer I know, is it 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. What a quote.
1 John 3:1 teaches us the depth of our adoption into God’s family.
So, is this how you understand Christianity? You have God as your Father. You are his child. Let that drive the way you pray today. Let that drive the way you worship him, the way you love him, the way you hear his word to you as a father, as a dad who loves you so much and knows what is best for you. You want to hear from him. You want to be with him. Walk with him today as a child does with a dad, a child who loves their dad and the dad who loves their child with an infinite love, a perfect love.
Let this thought, 1 John 3:1, this truth, “The love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” Let it prompt everything you do today. Oh God, we praise you as our Father in heaven. You’re our Father God. Help us to learn more and more every day what that means. What it means to be your child, for you to be our perfect Father. You have perfect love for us. God, you give perfect wisdom to us. You are perfect in your mercy and care for us. We can trust you completely. We are made for close relationship with you, trusting relationship with you. God, we pray for all these things to transform our whole outlook on life on a day by day moment by moment basis.
Prayer for the Dogose People
And God, we pray for family members, for brothers and sisters who are yet to be brought in. When we pray for unreached people like the Dogose people of Burkina Faso, 50,000 of them, hardly any, if any followers of Jesus among them, this Muslim people group. God, we know that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for salvation from every tribe, people, language and nation, that we have brothers and sisters yet to be brought in from all the nations. So we are asking you, Father, bring them in.
Bring in the Dogose people of Burkina Faso, bring them into the family, cause your family to rise up and go and bring them in to know you as Father. They can rejoice in 1 John 3:1 like we are able to rejoice in 1 John 3:1 today. We praise you that you, the Sovereign, Supreme, Holy Creator, Lord, Ruler of All, have made a way for us to be your children, to enjoy your love in your family as our Father. We praise you for 1 John 3:1 and we pray that you’d help us to live in its light today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
