Children of God

I was looking back at several of my last few postings and they really seem to be downers:  Spiritual Dryness, Hating God, Why Am I Here?  I can imagine someone looking over my blog titles and thinking, "this whole Christianity thing is for the birds!"  I can understand that and perhaps I have been remiss and focusing too much on the "pick up your cross daily" aspect and not focusing on what we are really commanded to go out and preach about--the Good News.

I suppose it's very easy to focus on "Good Friday" and not on "Easter Sunday" since sometimes it can seem like every day is a battle in spiritual warfare and that we are constantly under attack from Satan and his minions but we really need to step back and realize everything we have going for us and not what we have going against us.   After all, through baptism we are no longer just creations but we are in fact the adopted sons and daughters of God.  We ARE the brothers and sisters of Jesus.  If realizing that relationship doesn't give us hope then I don't think anything will.

Too often we see God in generic terms.  People have even tried to strip away the titles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that He has given Himself in scripture and instead call  Him, "creator, redeemer, sanctifier."  How sad.  That strips away the description of the of relationship we have with God.  He isn't some abstract concept.  Religion isn't about a bunch of rules to make God happy so we can go to Heaven.  No, it's about a relationship with Him.  Sure, we can sever that relationship through sin but God is merciful and allows us to reconcile with Him. Not sinning can be difficult because of our fallen nature but God is loving and gives us the grace we need not to sin.

So, put on a smile.  Keep your head up.  We are children of God and God takes care of His children.