God Made You for His Family 
By Rick Warren

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:5 (NLT)

The whole reason you exist is because God wanted you to become part of his family.

The Bible says, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT).

Your spiritual family, God’s family, is going to outlast even your physical family. Physical families don’t last. They grow up, they move away, they pass away. But the spiritual family of God will live on and on for eternity.

God never meant for you to go through life alone. The truth is, God hates loneliness. When God created man, he put him in the Garden of Eden—a perfect environment—and the first thing God said was, “It is not good for man to be alone.” God wants you to be part of his family.

What is God’s family? The Bible says, “That family is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15 NCV). The church, the body of Christ, is not an institution. The church is not a bureaucracy, an organization, or a social club. The church is God’s family. It’s not about rules and regulations, rituals and religion. It’s about relationships. And it’s about love.

The church is “the support and foundation of the truth.” What happens when a building has no support and foundation? It collapses. People who live in earthquake-prone areas understand this more than most. If you don’t have a good foundation under your building, it’s going to collapse when an earthquake comes.

God says that your life works the same way. You’re going to have some earthquakes—financial,  emotional, relational, health, and career earthquakes. And when tough times come along and you don’t have a spiritual family to support you, you’ll collapse.

You can’t fulfill God’s purposes by yourself. God wired you to need other people. With the strong support of the family of God, you’ll have the secure foundation you need to stand through life’s challenges.

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Encourage a Graduate in Your Life

Graduation time is here, and chances are there’s a young person in your life who could use some encouragement, along with a little guidance.

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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

You can listen to Rick Warren on OnePlace.com.