1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” This episode is about how much God loves us and what things can get in the way of that love. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Am A Child of God (Identity Series)
1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
This verse is so powerful. What great love the Father has lavished on us, isn’t that powerful? Can’t you just picture the Father lavishing us with Love? Or maybe you can’t. Maybe you struggle to believe that you are a child of God. Maybe you struggle to believe that the Lord loves you, and the thought that He lavishes love on you is something that you just can’t wrap your head around. If this is you, you are not alone. Love in this world is so complicated, and a lot of things can get in the way of us loving and feeling loved. There is a song by Matthew West called “Hello, My Name Is.” This song has the beginning line of the verse above in the lyrics, along with some reasons why we can’t feel this love. I want to go over some of those lyrics with you. Also, there is a link to the song in the show notes if you want to listen to it.
The song starts out by saying:
Hello, my name is Regret
I'm pretty sure we have met
Every single day of your life
I'm the whisper inside
That won't let you forget
This is true for so many of us. We struggle to feel God’s love because we have so many regrets. Regrets over things we have done or things we have said; regrets over things we didn’t do and didn’t say. When we have regrets, the enemy takes those, and he whispers them to us over and over again so that we feel like we aren’t worthy of God’s love. The enemy doesn’t let us forget about them.
Next, the song goes on to say:
Hello, my name is defeat
I know you recognize me
Just when you think you can win
I'll drag you right back down again
Till you've lost all belief
Does this sound familiar? Things are going well and then we start to get a voice in our head telling us that things will go wrong. Sure, it seems like all is going well, but things always get messed up in the end. Things have gone wrong so many times in the past that you start to think you don’t deserve to win. You don’t deserve the happiness or the love that God has planned for you. When this happens, we can start to self-sabotage. We don’t even know we are doing it. The enemy just keeps telling us that we have failed in the past, so we will fail again. He drags us back down over and over again until we have lost all belief in ourselves and sometimes in God.
Then the song goes on to say:
Oh, these are the voices; oh these are the lies
And I have believed them, for the very last time
Hello, my name is child of the One True King
I've been saved, I've been changed, I have been set free
Amazing Grace is the song I sing
Hello, my name is child of the One True King
This is a verse that we may want to write down and read often. I know I say this about a lot of verses from scripture, and you may have a lot of Post-it notes or index cards. I really think this one could help us all when we are feeling defeated or when the enemy is telling us lies. As much as we want to believe that God loves us and that we are His children, sometimes, the things of this world get in our way. Sometimes, we let the enemy's lies get to us and convince us that we are not worthy, that we are not loved, that we are unlovable, and so many other things that are not true. For me, when I heard this song, I loved it. I have listened to it a million times or so. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I have listened to it a lot. And guess what? Now I hear this chorus run through my head when I need it to. When I start to feel down on myself, I literally tell myself, “Catherine, you are a child of the one true king!” When I hear this, I can’t help but smile. When I start to doubt myself, when I start to have regret, or when I feel any of the enemy’s tactics, I tell him, sorry, but I am a child of the one true king. You’ve got nothing on my God; He is my one true king. I have even started saying this to my friends when they are struggling. When they are feeling down and also when they are feeling attacked, I remind them who they are and who they are. They are a child of God, the one true King, and He won’t let the enemy hurt them. He won’t let the enemy win.
The song goes on to say:
I am no longer defined
By all the wreckage behind
The One who makes all things new
Has proven it's true
Just take a look at my life
We all have things in our past that we are not proud of. We have all said and done things that weren’t great. Whether we did them on purpose or not, none of us are perfect. We live in a broken world, and this means that we hurt people sometimes. Regardless of what you have done in your past, you do not have to be defined by it. I think it is good to reflect on any areas that you are not proud of. If there are things you regret in your past, then take stalk of them and hand them over to the Lord. Ask Him to help you forgive yourself. Ask Him to help you move past them. We can not change the past, no matter how much we want to. If we want to find peace with our past mistakes, we need to turn them over and ask God for help. As these lyrics say, He is the one that makes all things new. I also like how the lyrics say that he Has proven it true: just take a look at my life. I think if we all took a look at our lives over the years, we would see plenty of examples of how God showed us His love, how He protected us from things, how He saved us from things.
The song ends with:
What love the Father Has lavished upon us
That we should be called His children
Hello, my name is child of the One True King
I've been saved, I've been changed, I have been set free
Amazing Grace is the song I sing
Hello, my name is a child of the One True King, yeah
These are the words from the scripture verse above. Can you imagine how much the Lord loves us to call us His children? Think about how much love you have for your children. Now, multiply that by a bazillion, and that is how much our heavenly Father loves us. My hope is that when you start to doubt this, you remember this song, you remember this scripture verse, and you remember that you are a child of the one true king. You remember that you’ve been saved, you've been changed, you have been set free. You are not who you were, and you don’t have to let your past mistakes define you. God has saved you, changed you, and set you free from everything. All you have to do is live in this freedom. Don’t let the enemy drag you back to your old self. Anytime he starts to whisper lies in your ear, just tell him, “I am a child of the one true king, I am not listening to you.”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we are so grateful for all the love that you lavish on us. We are sorry if we find it hard to accept it sometimes. Please help us with this. We want to accept all that you have to offer us freely. We want to live in the freedom you have given us. We don’t want to live with any chains that the enemy tries to weigh us down with. Please help us release anything that we need to release to live in your freedom. You are so amazing and you give us so much, help us to accept it. Help us to know that we are your children and that you love us. Help us not to believe the lies of the enemy. We are grateful for all you do for us, Lord. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day.
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “The day is washed in Light, my children, washed and bathed through your hand, an extension of my hand. My hand is kind and full of compassion and love. You are all the extension of me. You are not separate from me. Never do you move alone. I am your guide.”