I lavish My great love on My children.

1 John 3:1 New International Version (NIV)

3 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.

The greatest display of our Father's love is that He would call us His children. There is no higher honor or more wonderful experience than to be known throughout the universe as a child of the living God. The NIV Bible ends this verse with an exclamation mark (!) just to emphasize the point.

We are God's kids!!!!! How great is the love that He has poured out on us that He would call us His children! If this thought doesn't cause us to want to jump up and shout 'Hallelujah!', then I think we should ask for a greater revelation of this promise. I believe that the more that this foundational truth becomes part of our everyday life, the less influence fear will have because perfect love casts out fear! (1 John 4:18).

God wants us to be rooted and grounded in this revelation. We belong to God. He is our Dad. This is the very reason why Jesus came to earth, so that His Father could become our Father (John 20:17). I want to end today's devotional thought with part of the prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17 so that you and I would have a power encounter with the Spirit of God so that we might know this promise in the deepest core of our being...

Ephesians 1:15-21
15 For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints,16 don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; 18 having the eyes of your hearts  enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might 20 which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. (WEB)