Our Spiritual Family Is for Eternity
by Rick Warren
See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! 1 John 3:1 (NLT)
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Every human being was created by God, but not everyone is a child of God.
The only way to get into God’s family is by being born again into it. You became part of the human family by your first birth, but you become a member of God’s family by your second birth. God “has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God’s own family” (1 Peter 1:3 LB).
| Your spiritual family is even more important than your physical family because it will last forever. |
The invitation to be part of God’s family is universal, but there is one condition: faith in Jesus. The Bible says, “You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26 NLT).
Your spiritual family is even more important than your physical family because it will last forever. Our families on earth are wonderful gifts from God, but they are temporary and fragile, often broken by divorce, distance, growing old, and inevitably, death.
On the other hand, our spiritual family – our relationship to other believers – will continue throughout eternity. It is a much stronger union, a more permanent bond, than blood relationships.
Whenever Paul would stop to consider God’s eternal purpose for us together, he would break out into praise: “When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God – some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth” (Ephesians 3:14-15 LB).
