The Privileges Of Being A Child Of God

The privileges of being a child of God

Written anonymously on the walls of a medieval castle were the following words:

You call me Master and obey me not. You call me Light and See me not. You call me the Way and Walk me not. You call me Life and Desire me not. You call me Wise and Follow me not. You call me Fair and Love me not. You call me Rich and ask me not. You call me Eternal and seek me not. You call me Gracious and Trust me not. If I condemn you, blame me not.

As I was going about my week, I had the opportunity to witness to different people. One lady said she belonged to a big church. She said she believed in Christ. She also is having Bible studies with J. W’s. She also had an experience in a sweat lodge that really helped her. She smokes. A man talked with listen as I told him my belief about Christ as Savior and the Holy Spirit as sanctifier and he agreed with me. I asked him if he attended church and he said he goes to different churches and finds good in all of them. He also smokes. I talked with another man who said he is sure he is going to heaven but did not tell me he attends church anywhere. I am not the judge nor do I want to be but it made me stop and think what the privilege of being a child of God is. If we are to be like Christ what characteristics do we have that makes us know we belong to Him.

Hate is like acid. It can damage the vessel in which it is stored as well as destroy the object on which it is poured. Ann Landers The best thing to do behind a friend’s back is pat it. Ruth Brillhart

This brought me to our scripture for today, Acts 6:3, 5, 8, 10, 15 "Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. This idea pleased the whole group, and they chose the following: Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. None of them was able to stand against the wisdom and Spirit by which Stephen spoke. At this point, everyone in the council stared at Stephen because his face became as bright as an angel’s.”

Why was Stephen chosen? Would you or I be chosen? I want to talk from my heart about what is the privilege of being a child of God. I do not anyone that bears the name of Christ to show forth his image. We are called by God to be His children but I sense sometimes we act less holy than we should because we fail to live up to what we know to be the truth.

All the goodness in living begins first obeying rules, in keeping commandments. The Christian life is one marked with the simplest obedience. The way to become skillful is to do things repeatedly, until we can do them perfectly, and without thought or effort. The way to become able to do great things is to do our little things with endless repetition, and with increasing liveliness and carefulness. The way to grow into Christ likeness of character is to watch ourselves in the tiniest things of thought and word and act, until we are capable to do without having to give much thought in our lives as what is the moral, right and holy to do to be like Christ. God’s will is that we be like Christ. So it does matter what we believe but it should show up in our actions and words. To become prayerful, we must learn to pray. To pray we cannot just read prayers that other have written. We must learn to talk to God through Jesus. We must spend time if we are going to do this right. Does it not say in the book of Luke that Jesus often went alone to pray? How do you rate your prayer life?

How much time to we give to devotions in reading His Word and praying? We cannot be like someone that we do not spend time with. Your life is going to show whom you spend time with. When I spend time with people, I can tell right away, who they spend time with. They let me know by the words they say and the attitude they have and the actions they do whom they are serving.

We only grow into patience by being as patient as we can, daily and hourly, and in smallest matters, ever learning to be more and more patient until we reach having that as a fruit of the Spirit.