Not only does a relationship with Jesus reveal who the Father is but it will also reveal to us who we are. Often people have that nagging question kicking around in their thoughts, "Is there any purpose to any of this?" Some people live their life thinking they have life just by chance, that there is no purpose to it other than trying to find a little bit of happiness before you die. Others push the question aside completely because they are just trying to get by, to survive, to make it through another day. But life is too short to waste it with just getting by. Jesus said he came to give us abundant life and that life starts by realizing you are not an accident, you have a purpose for living here and you can find joy in living it.
John wanted this to be clear for us:
How great is the 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. (1 John 3:1)
It is not enough to say that the Father loves us; he does. But he does not just love us, he lavishes this love on us. He is extravagant with this love. Without the Spirit our senses are dull to this love; it is like we are stuck in a world of grays while a world of technic-colours is swirling all around us that we are blind to. It is when we claim Jesus as our Saviour that we receive the Holy Spirit and he opens our eyes to see the world of the Father's love. Bright, beautiful, lush, incredible world where he shows us every moment of the day that he loves us. In all our busyness and effort to survive and find happiness we blind ourselves to the reality of the Father's great love. We do not allow him to look after us, to provide, to encourage because we are too busy doing that for ourselves. There is a reason we have been told to "Be still and know that I AM God". Do you know the context of this great command? Psalm 46:
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
A great song that speaks to our dependence on God because we are unable to protect ourselves. It isn't just a song, it is an experience. Our Father is our protector and our provider, yet we act like a drowning man, panicking over the least little thing. We thrash about trying to save ourselves instead of allowing the rescuer to bring us to safety. Jesus told us to concentrate on the mission and our Father would look after us, but do we allow him to prove it? We are his children; he has given us both life and purpose. John wrote that we should not expect the world to recognize this. We can't turn to them for anwers because they can't even understand the question:
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
You can't understand the context of the Father's love without knowing the Father and Jesus said that if we know him then we know the Father. The world doesn't know us because the world doesn't know Jesus. They know the name, they know our imperfections but they don't know him. They've never met him. There are those that say they can take Jesus, it's just his followers they have a problem with. But these are ignorant people who do not know or understand the truth of the process. We know that what we see now is not what we will be. There is so much more:
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
If this is all there was it would be pretty depressing but we know that this is a "working out" place. It is a place of preparation as our God uses life to shape us and mold us into the character of the first born. The final transformation takes place when we are met by Jesus and we become fully what he has become for us. The world cannot know or understand because the world does not know Jesus, but we do and it is for this reason we strive to be more like Jesus:
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)
So we are without excuse. We know we are children of the Father and we know he has poured out his lavish love upon us. We know he is with us every moment of the day and we know he is our provider and protector. We know who we are in him and we know what our hope is, what is just around the corner. So stop living in the grays and step into this world of colour in which we live in Jesus.
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