God’s Promise for You – Family


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God’s Promise to You

Family

“So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.” Ephesians 2:19
Let’s face it, most of us have never experienced a Leave It to Beaver childhood. In fact, many of us could find our family photo beside the word “dysfunctional” in the dictionary.
Like me, some of you come from an abusive home. Perhaps you are the product of a single parent home – or maybe you  grew up a latch-key kid – maybe you felt like an unwelcomed guest in your own home. Or perhaps your immediate family was fine, but there were those fringe family members who made holiday dinners and family reunions interesting events for everyone.
Coming from a four member family, I’m blessed to be married to a man who has 20 aunts and uncles. After 25 years, I still can’t remember everyone’s names, but I love the converging Italian and German family heritages they share and the way they love one another – even those on the fringe.
We were not only made for community, we were made for family.
Unfortunately, many of our earthly families don’t look anything like God’s original divine design. Broken homes and shattered lives define much of who we are and the families we come from.
Many don’t even have a clue what a family feels like or looks like.
But when we receive Christ, we receive all He has to offer – including His forever family! We become a child of the King. We become Jesus’ joint-heirs. We are given sonship (for us girls, that’s ‘daughtership’) and our God becomes our Forever Father!
Romans 8:15-18 tells us…

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

And 1 John 3:1 declares…
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

God places us in His family and although it’s not perfect…although His kids still fuss and fight when our flesh gets the best of us – we have a family like no other. A family that will stick together, love each other and walk through this life together through the good times and the bad.

Our earthly families may be as crazy, dysfunctional as they come, but our forever family will one day function as God originally intended it to. Until then, we’re called to love each other well, sweet friend! We’re to laugh with each other, cry with each other, correct each other, care for each other, counsel each other and comfort each other.

There should be a whole lot of each-others going on in our forever family – and it should all be for the good of one another! Because we are family…forever.

What can you do to help your forever family function smoothly? Do you love on your sisters well? Do you bear one another’s burdens and put up with one another’s failures? Have you become part of God’s forever family?

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