Living For God

DEVOTION 1 JOHN LIVING FOR GOD 1 John 2:12-14 12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. NIV Does it matter at the point the need to describe or discover the differences between dear children, fathers, and young men? Do we need to know the children may have been new converts, the fathers may have been believers right away and may actually have seen Christ, and the young man might have been those who came to Christ and are now working diligently for the cause of Christ? What we should be focused on is what or how do we apply this to us today. Sometimes we can get so distracted with the history of the Word that we lose sight of the application to our lives. If all of scripture is God breathed and good for teaching, correcting and rebuking then we need to see how this works in our lives today. There is no question that we know our sins have been forgiven, but do we, at times, forget and allow guilt and shame to creep in? When we became believers did we spend time really getting to know him, have we continued to gather as much information as we can about him? Are we continually improving in our understanding of him, his character, his personality, his methods of communication and interaction with us? Although by the simple act of accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior we have overcome the evil one, having forsaken his control over us, and submitted ourselves to Christ, we still need the strength of Christ, the power of the Spirit to continue our journey, not returning to our old ways or succumbing to the influence of the devil. We need to be strong and have the word of God live deep within us, so that we have the words of God to speak against his attacks on our soul. True we all may be on different levels in our journey with God, some just beginning as dear children having to learn the basics, being able to learn and understand the language, as our children must do in this world. Some may be those old fathers who have been in the faith for most of their life, and are now old and grey in the standards of this world, but we know God, and must continue our faith and journey as well, not even being content with our position and retire from his service, sitting back and thinking I have done my part, it is time for the younger one to battle now. There are also many of us who are young and strong in our faith doing battle daily for the kingdom of God, knights in shining armor, carrying the sword of truth into the battle, guarding the women and children, so to speak. Then again we could see each phrase, in our lives as well, seeing our development as a believer, but truly it is all about each one of us, being all that we can be, living for God.