Have you ever heard someone ask the question, “How do you know you are a Christian?” They look at your life. They observe your behavior. They listen to your speech, and yet, they just don't get it. In fact, many people don't even understand why there is any need for a relationship with God. They feel that they are alright, and do not understand how anyone could ever believe that they are the sons and daughters of God. In other words when the world hears that we are the sons and daughters of God, they say, “Huh?” John the apostle addresses this dilemma in the third chapter of the book of First John and verse one where he writes:
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.
We have been learning how much God loves us. God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to take our place of death on the cross for our sins so that we could have fellowship with Him. Not only did He make a way for us, but by doing so, He also positioned us as His sons and daughters or princes and princesses. When this happens we become unknown to the world. We seem strange to them, and they do not understand. There is a reason for this, they “knew him not.”
When someone doesn't know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, they “just don't get it”, and they won't “get it” until they themselves receive Jesus. There is in effect a blindness over their eyes until they make this decision. Paul the apostle approached it this way in the book of Second Corinthians chapter four and verses three and four:
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Paul's answer is simple. They are blinded spiritually so that they cannot see, and the source of this blindness is none other than “the god of this world”. If they were not blind, they would see. When we look around us and see the behavior and thinking of some individuals that so contrasts the thinking of Jesus and the Bible, it makes so much sense when we understand they have been blinded.
So how does a person have this blindfold removed? John the apostle wrote in the Gospel of John in chapter one and verse twelve:
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:
And Paul continued in Second Corinthians chapter four verses five and six:
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
To make the blindness disappear, and to have the knowledge of what it means to be sons and daughters of God, we must receive Jesus into our lives. Through believing that we are sinners who deserve to die for our sins, and understanding that Jesus came and died in our place on the cross and was raised again, our blinded eyes see, and we become the sons and daughters of God. This is a mystery to the world, and until they receive Jesus themselves, they will continue to be blind.
Next time we will share about more benefits to being the children of the Most High God, so read ahead, and we shall share together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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