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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! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Yes, we're children of God thru the spirit of adoption, which casts out the spirit of bondage. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we're no longer orphans, but we're now divinely adopted and we can call God "Abba Father". That word abba is like calling Him Papa or Daddy. For some of us who never heard that our earthly parents were proud of us and loved us, it's difficult to imagine that our heavenly Father is any different. But if we weren't loved and special to our earthly parents, it's not because we're not special. It's because they weren't special to their parents and they did the best they could with bad info and passed that bad info on to us. Now, for me, I have better info from the love letter my heavenly Father gave me and I need to choose whether to believe the truth of His Word, or the lies that came down thru the family line and passed along as truth. But this isn't a "once and done" thing. The enemy keeps whispering the lies into our ears and we need to take that lying thought captive to the obedience of Christ and cast it down. Knowing this stuff in our head is one thing, but knowing it in our heart is different. The way to get it in our heart is to meditate on the Word day and night. As we meditate on the Word, it becomes part of our spirit. As it becomes part of our spirit, we're hiding it in our heart...I liken it to an atm machine. If we keep putting it in, then, we can make it part of our vocabulary and when we need it, it'll come out. That's why it's so important to keep our house filled with the Word. Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:43 and Luke 11:24, that when the strong man or unclean spirit is cast out he goes around to dry places looking for another warm body to hang out it. Then he comes back to the original place and finds it clean swept, empty and in order... the key word here is "empty"... not filled with the Word. He then comes back and brings 7 more worse than himself and the person is worse off than they were to begin with. Papa God, I thank You that You chose me before the foundations of the earth and brought me forth on the day I was born. Thank You for revealing the truth of that love and any thought contrary to that is from the little "g" god of this world, the father of lies in whom there is no truth. So please always remind me to take each of these lies captive and cast them down, bringing them captive to the obedience of Christ, so they won't set up a stronghold. Greater are You big "G" God who is in me than the little "g" god of this world.

It is a blessing and privilege to have a great love being lavished on me by our Father in Heaven and it is great to be called a child of God! It is amazing that the reason the world does not know us as the children of God is that it did not know Him.

The first 3 verses John is speaking of focuses on God's love for us, His love is a result of believers to be children of God. Becoming a child of God is a great sign of God the Fathers love. John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Hallelujah He has Risen!, He Has Risen Indeed!

Our Father "lavishes" not merely gives but lavishes His love on us. Think about that word for a moment, to lavish means given or provided with great generosity and abundance, to bestow with large generosity, profusion, a downpour. Wow ,our Father ,our Abba loves us so much that He can't help but generously and abundantly pour His love down on us.It makes me feel so wanted,precious,chosen,and worth while to have a Father who genuinely loves me no matter what.Thank you God.