ODJ: i’m alright, aren’t i?
January 17, 2010
See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know Him (v.1).
READ: 1 John 3:1-5
I was on the 436 bus heading into Sydney one morning when an older woman, wearing a faded floral dress, hobbled onto the bus and sat down next to me. We traveled for some time in silence. Then the floral lady did the most extraordinary thing. She turned, thrust her head in my face, and with her brown eyes bulging and her stained teeth bared, she cried, “I’m alright, aren’t I?”
I jumped.
“Well, of course you’re alright,” I said, lying.
“Some people think I’m funny in the head,” she replied.
“Now, why would they think that?” I asked. She said she didn’t know, then fell back into silence.
A few minutes later she crossed the aisle and sat next to the only other person on the bus. She turned to him and said, ”I’m alright, aren’t I?”
I wondered how many times that question would be asked that day. She longed for assurance so desperately that she sought it from any stranger in her path.
Am I alright? Am I acceptable? Am I lovable? All of us ask questions like these. The gospel says to all who embrace Jesus, to all who accept His sacrifice for their sins, that He will give the right to become children of God (John 1:12-13). “See how very much our Father loves us,” the apostle John exclaims, “for He calls us His children” (1 John 3:1).
You have a most profound identity in Jesus. God the Father has adopted you (Ephesians 1:5), given you His Spirit, and made you an heir to His inheritance (Galatians 4:6). You may be ridiculed and rejected, you may have little in the world’s eyes, yet God looks at you and says, “My child.”
“I’m alright, aren’t I?” we ask anxiously.
“In Me, yes, you are,” the Father replies.
And He isn’t lying. —Sheridan Voysey
How much do you relate to God as your Father, who shares His inheritance with you? As you go about your day, how will you remind yourself that you are your Father’s child?
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I do that all the time, ask” I’m alright, arent I ??” And the truth is, besides Lord Jesus, probably no one else could say a more convincing “Yes.”
Pray to Lord for every questions, doubts, requests that we sinful men might have, and be certain that he will see to answer that in the most appropriate way. It might not be be what we sinful men might have hope for. But it will be all that we need. Praise Lord for his unfailing love.