We are called the children of God
The date planner
Did your parents ever keep a datebook? Perhaps an agenda or they knew the upcoming events and plans for your family life. God knows the upcoming events. He has plans for your life. You may not be aware of the plans, you might not yet know what you will need for the plans. But God as your heavenly Father, he is well aware and ready for everything that will fill your life book. In Matthew 24, Jesus is talking about events that have yet happened at a time over 2000 years ago. Many verses speak of Jesus talking about his time before he came to Earth, this was a planned event. Purposed for a specific time to accomplish the fulfillment of prophecy and the enlightenment of his people, the children of God.
Little children
It is too often wondered and not quite accurately understood why Jesus in Matthew 18, purposely pointed out that the children were the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. It wasn't those children in particular, and it wasn't children in general, it was HIS children, the you and me, the children of God. It was a type of parable in essence. We are the greatest in heaven. Yes, I think it was literal in the sense that children are trusting, they have childlike faith, they are loving and simple. None of the adult trappings to tie down their life. He wanted to show the need to have the best of the childlike qualities, that grow us and keep us as his people. He is our father which is in heaven. He gave us natural fathers out of compassion, just as he gave us judges.
The body of Christ
As the children of God, you make up the parts of the body of Christ (Romans 12:5). This is very much like when you were a child and had chores that needed to be done. You were given something to do, and generally there was some reward attached to the accomplishment. God cares for us in the natural and understands that we are human in body, thus he rewards us with the earthly blessings in life to help us to maintain our course onto our heavenly reward. He knows that we are childlike in that we need these things in life, be it material blessings, or the gifts of our family to help us to stay the course of the work assigned to us. Our chores on Earth. Our chore is to maintain, preserve and act in the fullest capacity as the body of Christ, with the blessing of the gifts of the spirit to accomplish this.
Fruits of the Spirit
This is one of the most underutilized behavioral maps to being the Christlike child that we have. In Galatians 5:22-23 we are given the nine traits or qualities that represent the fruit of the spirit. These qualities should be the main building blocks of who we are from childhood. They are the Christ within us that make us like him. And who doesn't want to be the best of their father? Too often this scripture is overlooked as something for the adult Christian reader. It is actually part of the childlike ways that we should be trained throughout childhood and taught to maintain our entire adult life. True, if we haven't fulfilled that Christ perfection, then as adults we should emulate these fruits, practice them and continually work to make them part of who we are as his children.
Love
The greatest commandment that God gave us was to love one another (John 13:34-35). This is something that a child does pretty well. Have you ever noticed that small children are very much like puppies? When you come in the door, you are greeted with love and affection as if you were the only person in the world, the most important only person. How great would it be if we could give this loving affection to everyone we touched in life? This enthusiastic love that bubbled with such joy and brought a contagious smile to every life that we encountered. The ugliness that happens in life can block this from happening. Be it anger, grudges, hurt feelings, or sometimes we don't even remember a good reason why we lost that generous loving feeling. As his children, his little ones, that represent what we are taught in our fathers house, we must above all else have loving compassion one to another.
Be the Children of God
Children of God have to realize that we are called out of darkness (1 Peter 2:9), into our position that we are given. We are not called the Adults of God, because adults carry baggage, they are set in ways that may not truly emulate the fruits of the spirit. Adults have difficulty maintaining the faith, hope and charity. Little children when knowledgeable of a reward tied to their actions, can be the most faithful, hopeful and charitable creatures on the planet. It could halfway remind you of a comedic script. Brother and sister could be having a fight to end all fights, but when promised they will have candy or go to the park or some other enjoyable pastime or activity based on their behavior, they miraculously become model children. These are the children of God. No matter how much your physical earthly bodies grow or change, maintain that childlike grace of God. We are here to be on Gods plan, to be the physical body of Christ, fulfilling the fruits of the spirit, loving above all else, being the children of God
Let him that hath an ear hear.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
