Like Father, like Son – Part III
Published:Sunday | April 26, 2020 | 12:10 AM
Over the last eight weeks, we have been discussing the topic ‘This Is Who I Am’ and looking at the identity of Christians in light of our Father in Heaven, who has adopted us into His family. This identity comes with power and privilege greater than we could ever imagine. However, Christians often live without these benefits because we are unaware of how to walk in this new identity. This is why the last two weeks covered how we can change our minds to behave as our identity requires.
This is very necessary in times of crisis and uncertainty. As God’s children, the way we think has the power to give us hope and peace even when the world is in turmoil. This isn’t a naïve ignorance of the truth but an acknowledgement that our Father is always in charge. Our world needs the children of God to live and behave in their true identity because this is what brings transformation.
If God is love, His children must also love. We first have to receive God’s love by being thankful every day as we meditate on His love for us. We do this by reading the Bible and looking for the ways it shows that God loves us. When we begin to understand this great love, we will love and obey God even more.
And as we meditate on God’s love, we will begin to replicate it. This is how we “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and “love your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27, NIV).
For example, as we focus on how God gave us what we needed before we even asked, we begin to intentionally and habitually look for opportunities to meet the needs of others whether they ask for it or not. We will be God’s hands and feet in this world, walking in His love and showing love to those who need it.
The more we walk in God’s love, the more we grow in our ability to starve old negative thoughts and plant new life-giving ones. Colossians 3:5 (NIV) instructs us: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature… .” We become more self-aware as we pay attention to our thought life and our emotions.
When a sinful thought enters our minds, we can either entertain it or eliminate it. We can acknowledge that thought, disagree with it, and respond with a thought from God’s word. So if it’s animosity towards someone, we meditate on the fact that our Father forgave our sins, and so, as His children, we are called to forgive others.
Or, when thoughts of worry about the world enter our minds, we can allow the truth of who God is – His power, His love for us, and His compassion – to replace our fears. When we do this, we will live by our beliefs and the truth of God’s Word and not by our emotions.
This is how children of God who know and walk in their identity behave. We are new creations, and by the power of the Holy Spirit now living in us, we can love God and others as Jesus would. And we can live free of fear of the future without being controlled by our emotions and look more and more like God.
And then we can obey Colossians 3:2-3 (NIV), which says, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” because “…you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” As believers, we are in Christ, who is in God, and the Holy Spirit is in us.