FACTS FOR GRANDCHILDREN...AND EVERYONE ELSE!

JUNE 2022


Last Fall Patti and I had some of our older grandchildren for a weekend sleepover. We all had a great time, talking and playing board games. Just before it was time for them to leave for home, we had a time of prayer with them, laying hands on them and praying especially for the Lord's blessing and guidance for the coming school year. I had planned to share a few thoughts with them by way of a teaching, but wanted it to be "short, significant, and memorable."

As I reflected about what to say, I was led to three key facts. I said to  them, "Remember these three things: God is love; God loves me; God is for me. You will hear a lot of different things in your life, but don't forget these three."

At our Christmas Eve gathering a few months later, I quizzed them to see how well they remembered, and will continue to do so in the future. Let's examine those three key facts here.

GOD IS LOVE

This is a basic description of God, a key fact about who God is. We read in 1 John 4:8: "He who does not love does not know God; for God is love." A few verses later, it says again: "So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).

Scripture is the written record of God's love and loving actions toward his people throughout salvation history. God is love and whatever God does is done out of love (even his discipline!).

GOD LOVES ME

The second important fact about God is that God loves me personally. God the Father loves me. The word of God says: "For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I have come forth from God" (1 John 16:27). God created each of us out of love and sent his own Son to redeem us out of love. (cf. John 3:16).

And God the Son, Jesus, loves me as well. "...the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). Romans 5:8 drives home the point that Jesus died for us "while we were yet sinners."

Finally, God the Holy Spirit loves me: "...hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom. 5:5).

This personal love of the Trinity is summarized beautifully in Ephesians 2:4-6: " But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

GOD IS FOR ME

A very important fact to keep in mind is that God is for me, not against me. God is on my side. God is my advocate, not my adversary. God directs me out of lovingkindness, not hostility or vindictiveness. (Remember the father of the Prodigal Son, running to meet his wayward boy and welcoming him with affection.) This fact is impressed on us in Psalm 56:9: "This I know, that God is for me." This is a wonderful verse to repeat over and over again throughout the day: "This I know, that God is for me." We know that the devil spares no effort to try to persuade us otherwise!

Another Scripture to hold on to at all times is Romans 8:28: "Now we know that to those who love God, all things work together for good, to those who are called according to his purpose."

GOD LOVED US FIRST

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God took the initiative. He loved us first. We acknowledge what the Lord has done and respond with praise, thanksgiving, love and obedience. 

I realize that there is a lot more to the Christian message than these three facts. But we have to start somewhere, and I think these three facts about God's love provide the best foundation for everything else we learn about God, faith in Jesus, and the Church.

May we always keep these key facts in mind and drill them into our children and our children's children!!