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Being a Child of God: Benefits of Heirship
Keeping with the subject of what it means to be a child of God, I’ll be using Romans 8:16-17. Have you ever thought about the blessings we receive by being fellow heirs with Christ? I have three blessings that I want to remind you of and give you something to think about through the week.
1. Heaven is now open to us. As I get older, I realize that this life is very short. I’ll be 58 in September and the years have truly gone by so fast! I have been out of high school for 40 years!! If the Lord blesses me with longevity I’ll probably live another 20-30 years on this earth. As I’ve aged my focus has shifted from the physical to the spiritual, and my faith helps me to realize that God expects us to bring others to see “the glory that is to be revealed to us” when we stand before Him. Are we living with assurance and conviction, as Hebrews 11:1 says, for the things that we haven’t yet seen? Are we attracting others to Him by the way we live our lives? How often do we mention God and our Savior in our daily conversations with others? 1 John 1:25 says “This is the promise that He made to us: eternal life.” Let’s share that promise with others.
2. God has given us the best guide book to live a good life and to see Him on that day. 1 Peter 3:8-12 is a perfect example of how it can be a guide book for our relationships with others and how God wants us to interact with one another so that we will have success in this life and be pleasing toward Him. Are we devoted to one another in brotherly love? Do we prefer one another over the world as Romans 12:10 says? What is the first impression others get of us when they meet us? Are we looked at as positive people, or do others avoid us because we sour their mood? The guide book is there. We just need to read it. What a different world we would live in if everyone lived by this book!
3. God has given us the best support group anyone could ever have. Read Exodus 17:12. The example here is how others supported Moses as he grew weary. I have seen this in action as I was recently unable to get out of bed for about six weeks and and on two different occasions a family from church came over and did yard work for me. What a blessing that was! The support we can give to each other could be physical, monetary, emotional or spiritual. How many times have we been feeling sorry for ourselves and someone gave us a big smile or a hug and it totally changed our outlook? It has happened to me. I’m sure it has happened to others also.
Two things come to mind when I think about supporting one another. First, we are not mind readers--so if you need help, you need to be able to tell someone. Second, we need to have relationships with others so we know when they have a need. We need to be close enough to people that they are willing to confide in us.
I hope these thoughts help you to challenge the negative behavior we are bombarded with on a daily basis from the world. Be strong! 1 Peter 5:8-10
