God Speaking

“You are the children of your Lord your God…”

(Deuteronomy 14: 1)

When I was young, I would often hear grown ups around me say, of course he/she is just a child. I often wondered what they meant by that, was it some excuse for behaviour? Or was it some sort of dismissal of their worth? Was it a reason to ignore their contribution to life and to keep them in the background? The other familiar saying was, children should be seen and not heard. On Sunday morning we were singing one of my favourite songs and the end of every verse was this phrase

I am a child of God

Suddenly just a child, takes on a whole different meaning when we realise that God has bestowed the most incredible relationship upon us, he has allowed us to call him Father with all the privileges of Royal children.

We were singing that we were each a child of God with confidence in the incredible love of the Father, so surely the Lord views that word quite differently when he lovingly calls us his children.

Jesus himself makes it quite clear his value of children and rebukes the disciples for turning away children coming to see him;

“When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10: 14)

Next, he warns us to humbly accept this beautiful relationship of being children so we never lose that sense of dependence on him and don’t slip into thinking we can now control our own lives without consulting him as the much wiser parent.

“I tell you the truth anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10: 15)

The other encouraging verse in the gospel of John tells us that when we accept and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the right to call ourselves children of God a right that cannot be snatched away from us;

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1: 12)

Even though we long to become adults when we are young, adulthood can be scary as we realise, we must make decisions on our own and when we are at the cross roads of a life changing choice, it can be overwhelming to know it is up to us to choose. That is when it is so wonderful to remember that in God’s eyes, we are just children and he will welcome us into his presence so we can talk it over with him and seek his guidance through prayer.

I am quite happy to be called, just a child of God when I know he will remember my frailty and hold out his hand when I need it the most;

“If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm, though he stumbles, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand” (Psalm 37: 23 – 24)