YOU WILL CONTINUE TO BE GOD’S CHILD IN THE COMING YEAR

New Year’s Eve, 2014 (s657.doc)

441 – 72:1-3 – 69 – 765 – 70 – 75

Pastor Thomas Fricke

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children. (Psalm 103:8-17)

Some time ago I was browsing on the Internet and came across a photograph that caught my eye. It’s a picture of a five-year-old girl, Lena Davis, who is swimming outside her home in Louisiana. Lena’s face is submerged up to her nose, her blonde hair slicked back and her bright eyes peeking out just above the water…

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What’s striking about the image is that in the background you can see her father stepping up out of the water into their home—a dilapidated trailer surrounded by the floodwaters left behind by a tropical storm.

I look at the picture and all kinds of questions run through my mind: What did the little girl’s family live through? What kind of fear, anguish, and heartache did they experience? What kind of challenges will the future bring? What’s running through her father’s mind?

We don’t know. All we know is that little Lena seems perfectly content, not at all concerned with the violence of the storm and the devastation it’s caused. She seems entirely free of worry about the struggles and difficulties her family will encounter in the coming year. This little girl has her father to take care of all that…

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It’s a wonderful thing to be a child. It’s a wonderful thing to know that you have a father who loves you and that he’s going to take care of you. Just to have that confidence is priceless. Yet as wonderful as that is, it’s even better to be a child of God—to know that your Father in heaven loves you and that he’s going to take care of you.

I just wonder if we fully realize what a blessing it is.

As an old man, the apostle John wrote, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). We are children of God. What does that mean for us now, as we stand at the threshold of a new year?

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You are God’s child. No matter how old you are or how alone you feel, you are a dearly loved child of the heavenly Father. But that hasn’t always been the case.

I can tell you my story. I entered this world as an enemy of God. Spiritually blind and a slave to sin, I was headed for hell. But eight days after my birth, I was brought before the Lord to be baptized. Though once outside the family of God, I was welcomed into his family of believers.

The Bible uses a number of different words to describe believers: servants, soldiers, priests, sheep. Of all of them, this one is the dearest: we are children—children of God! “You are all sons [children] of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” the Bible says (Galatians 3:26). We have been adopted into God’s family. We can rest secure. Our Father in heaven loves us dearly and will always take care of us.

Just look back at the events of the past year. 2014 was the year that ISIS became a household name for its kidnapping and beheading of Western journalists. It was the year that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was lost at sea, another plane crashed in Eastern Ukraine, and an Air Asia flight disappeared on its way to Singapore. This was the year of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Closer to home, it was the year of the bitterly cold winter here in the Midwest. And for some, it was a year of flooded fields and financial woes.

Yet not for a moment did our Father in heaven stop caring about us. Through the storms of life, he was with us. In times of economic uncertainty, he gave hope. And even now, he promises to meet all our needs: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name. You are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

You are God’s child, dearly loved.

·  Like a good Father, he gives you guidance and direction.

·  In every emergency he is there for you.

·  Whenever you need his help, you can pray to him; you never have to feel like you’re talking to a stranger.

You could turn your back on him. You could walk away from his loving care. That would be your choice, not his. But should you return to him in humble repentance, he will always be ready to welcome you back with open arms.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:8-13).

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You are God’s child, dearly loved…but it will not always look that way.

The Father-child relationship we enjoy with our God is not always something you can see. At times, we may be the ones responsible for that. If it’s because we’re not living the way he taught us, the way he wants us to live, then it’s our own fault if we don’t appear to be children of the heavenly Father. At other times, we don’t appear to be children of God because of circumstances, not because of our sins. Our Father permits things to happen in our lives that we’d rather not have to go through.

This year, loved ones have passed away (also in the homes of some of us). Jobs have been lost (also among us). Illness has come (also in our homes), and with it physical and financial challenges. At times like this, life gets hard and we wonder if God has left us…if he no longer cares. And looking ahead, it may be that 2015 promises more of the same. Yet your Father is still there…and you will never stop being his child.

When I was young, my father would go out and play catch with me. He knew baseball, and in his day, he was pretty good at it. But he didn’t over-coach. He taught me a few things. But then he’d let me learn on my own…by doing.

Our Father in heaven does the same for us. He gives us the direction we need…and then he lets us learn on our own. The Bible says, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” (Acts 14:22). And it says, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons” (Hebrews 12:7).

There may be times that we struggle in life. There may be times that we experience the Lord’s discipline because we need it. It may be at times that that discipline will be firm. None of that means that he’s left us or forgotten us, or that he doesn’t care about us. Not at all. It’s the Lord’s loving hand.

With St. Paul we can be confident that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). And we can say, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).

Today we look forward to 2015. We peer into a future that is unclear, a year that is filled with uncertainty…

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We may have to deal with all sorts of unexpected problems in life. We may be reminded daily that we’re not living in our heavenly home—not yet. And yet our hearts can be at peace and we can be happy and content. Through the eyes of faith we can see: the future is securely in our loving Father’s powerful hands…

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Time marches on. One year ends and another one begins…and each time it does, it bring us one step closer to home. “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children” (Psalm 103:13-17).

The year 2014 had its share of blessings and challenges. The same will be true in 2015. Still, you can go forward with confidence.

You will continue to be God’s child in the coming year! AMEN.