You are God's Favourite

Dear Friends,


I love my children and will sometimes say to them "You are my favourite son/daughter."  The response I usually get from them is a groan or rolling of the eyes and "Mu-um, I'm your only son/daughter."  I tell them, "Yes, but you're still my favourite!"  It's my way of letting them know how much I love them, how precious, how special they are to me. 

For me, it's a picture of how I believe God loves each one of us.  He loves me in such a way that he says to me, "You're my favourite!"  And I believe he loves you in such a way too and says "You're my favourite!".

God loves each one of us with an incredible, incomparable, unconditional love.  A love that goes beyond the ordinary.  A love that is pure and selfless.  A genuine love.  A love that is beyond our understanding.  He loves us each individually and considers us all his favourite.

I love words and I love the word used to describe how God has given us love in 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!" (NIV)

And there are two exclamation marks in that one verse just to emphasize how wonderful that is and how it is deserving of proclaiming.

God doesn't just choose to pour out his love on one person but not another, neither does he pour out his love for one whilst giving little to another.  He lavishes it on each one of us, equally and individually.

He loves us so much that he has chosen to adopt us into his family.  You and I have become a loved child of God.  "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." Ephesians 1:5 (NLT)

The incredible truth is that God loves each one of us in the same way he loves his own son, Jesus.  "I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me."  John 17:23 (NLT) 

In bible times it was the custom for the favoured son, the first born son to receive the bulk of the inheritance, but when God adopted us ino his family, he made us co-heirs with his son, Jesus, and each one of us receives a full inheritance. "And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory." Romans 8:17a (NLT)  Some translations use the word joint heirs or co-heirs.  All that God has is available to each one of us.  How wonderful is that?

Sometimes we can fall into the trap of believing the lie that God must love this person or that person more than he does us.  That's because it's the way the world works.  People are favoured based on many things such a their gender, their age, their skin colour, their education etc.

Believing this lie leads to us making judgements on others, comparing ourselves with them, trying to measure up, being performance driven and jealous of others.  There is no place for these things in our relationship with God.  And when we truly grasp the truth of the kind of love God has for us, which is so different to the world's love, we have no need of them.

When we feel secure in God's unwavering love and acceptance we begin to love and accept others in the same way.  We don't make comparisons between them, we don't judge them, we don't make them feel they need to measure up in order to be loved by us and we don't create divisions or jealousy by favouring one person above another.  We love them with the same quality of love that God shows to us, recognising that God loves them just as deeply as he loves us. 

To Think About:
Rest in the incredible love that God has for you.  Ask him to help you believe not only in your head but also in your heart that you are his favoured son or daughter.

If you have believed in the past that you have needed to perform to earn God's love, if you have always tried to measure up, if you have constantly compared yourself with others, jealous of others and not felt good enough, ask God to free you from believing these lies and living this way.

Does your love for others mirror God's love for you?  How will you show love to those in your life this coming week?

Vicki

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