1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.
I am a pastor’s kid so I knew, growing up, that my father owned the church and was the boss of everyone in it (at least I was pretty sure it worked that way when I was five). It is possible that I misused my misguided sense of authority (amongst the other five year olds), but I drew much confidence from my identity as a child of the pastor.
John tells us that we are now children of God and that we need to understand our identity as his children. The creator of the universe has loved us so intensely that He has given of himself unto death to cause us to be his.
This identity as a child of God is forever. Just as my children will always be my children, I will always belong to God and nothing can change that. I can rest assured in the security of my eternal relationship with the one who owns not just a church, but the entire universe.
As my children can obey or disobey me, I can likewise choose to follow or not follow my heavenly father. My children can do things that hurt our relationship and cause me to be sad, but they just do not have the capacity to stop me from loving them. I can live in conflict with them, but they are still my children. Likewise, I may live closer or further from my heavenly father, depending on how I follow him, but I cannot change the fundamental position that I have as a child of God.
In my greatest destruction, I needed to be reminded of this fact: I was a child of God and that nothing could change that. I also needed to be reminded that I was grieving my father with my behavior. I needed to return to him, repent and ask forgiveness, not so I could again become his child, but so I could restore my relationship to its right condition. It is a beautiful, peaceful thing to be in right relationship to my father.
As in any relationship, I can spend a little or a lot of time with God. I can know him little or I can come to know him intimately. What holds me back from pursuing this intimacy? It is my own self that stands in the way. It is the pursuit of me that keeps me from knowing God as I should. I daily, need to abandon self and pursue my relationship with my father.