Focus on the Future – November 1, 2026

One key truth: God’s lavish love makes us his children now. The certain hope of seeing Christ and being like him moves us to live as his children today.

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. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
1 John 3:1-3

Focus on the Future

There’s a boy who didn’t grow up in a Christian home. His biological father was an abusive man who left the family. So, this boy and his mom moved. She remarried. And this new stepdad adopted that little boy. Through that change, the boy received a gift that would shape his future forever.

What was that gift? Was it a safe home? That mattered, but there was something else. A new last name? No, something greater. Possibly an inheritance worth a lot of money? Not that either. That stepdad brought his new wife and adopted son to church. He’s the largest human reason that boy was baptized and raised in the Christian faith. That boy became a Christian father, grandfather, and high school teacher. Who knows how many were blessed from that one story of adoption by our heavenly Father.

So, what does your family line look like? Maybe you’ve always been raised in the Christian church since you were baptized as a baby. Maybe you were brought to faith later on. Whether the path of your faith has been smooth or bumpy, consistent or challenging, the same God and Father calls us his children. Even if your earthly family has let you down, your heavenly Father never will. Think about that: the Father of all eternity adopted us into his family as his very own. How so? He lavished his great love on us through his Son. The Father gave up his only Son so that we would be his daughters and sons forever.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us.” “Lavished” . . . it’s like he gave us the extra special measure of grace poured out on full display. That’s what we see in the greatest gift of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

And since we are God’s family, that means we ought to live that way together. We’re God’s family who are connected by the blood of Jesus. Today, live like you’re part of a special family led by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Live in a way that makes someone watching want to be part of our eternal family.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, you have brought us into your family. Help us to live as your children until we see you face to face. Amen.