A few years ago, the LORD woke me up early to teach me something very profound from His perspective about being a father.

I had gone downstairs and sat on the floor, leaning on the couch.  Thoughts and worries raced through my mind as I confessed to the LORD that I was tired and needed His help to stay awake.

Gently I heard Him ask me to sit up on the couch with Him.  I did.  He then began to repeat a Scripture verse to me.  “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Over and over again.

My thoughts sounded something like this: “Okay LORD, what do you want me to learn from this verse?  This is what you said when your Son, Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan in order to fulfill all righteousness…”

He repeated “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Finally it began to sink in.  God was telling me personally, “you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

You see, I had an identity crisis, and God needed to fix it.  I “knew” that by the blood of Jesus Christ my sins had been forgiven, and had been taught (and even repeated to others) that by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are made children of God, and that God sees us as He sees His own son.   But God was revealing to me that I didn’t completely believe that God really does think of me the way He thinks of Jesus, because I am in Christ and He is in me.

“You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”  But what about all the mistakes and fail… “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”

I let down my defenses and began to accept what God was saying.  I am His beloved son in whom He is well pleased.  Not because of anything I have done.  But because of what He has done, and because of what Jesus has done.

I am beloved by God.  I am a son of God.  I am loved by God completely.  God is pleased with me.  God   is    pleased    with    me.   Ahhh, my soul began to rejoice and I was filled to overflowing with joy inexpressible.   My life’s worry has always been that I would do something displeasing to the LORD and would wreck our relationship (just as I thought I had done so many times before.)

God wanted me to know and believe without any doubting that I belong to Him, that I’m His son, and that He is pleased with me.

Once He established that, He asked me another question.  One I’ve never heard or considered, and have never been taught by any man.

“What is a father’s greatest glory?”

I pondered the question.  I am a father, and I’ve never really thought about that.  The answer is so simple, but so profound.

“A father’s greatest glory is to have children.
A father’s greatest glory is to raise those children in love, and bring them to maturity so that they are a reflection of their father in love and righteousness.
A father’s greatest glory is for his children to grow up and become not only his children, but his most trusted friends.  With a friendship that is closer and more special than any other friendship they have.  Friends who are entrusted by him with his most precious treasures. Not to hoard for themselves, but to share with others as he has shared with them.  Friends who will take what they have learned from Him and pass it on to others.”

That is why God has chosen to present Himself as God the Father, and God the Son.  As God’s children, born again through faith in Jesus Christ’s death & resurrection, we are meant to be His greatest glory.  Meant to grow to maturity in our relationship with Him.  Meant to be His close friends.  Meant to be entrusted with every spiritual gift in the heavenly places.  And meant to share those gifts, and what we learn from Him with others, so that they may become children of God as well.

John 1:12 – But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name

Romans 8:16 – The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

1 John 3:1 – Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God…

1 John 3:2 – Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.