Fellowship: Formed for God’s Family

By Rick Warren

See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! 1 John 3:1.

You were formed for God’s family.

“God is the One who made all things, and all things are for his glory. He wanted to have many children share his glory...” (Hebrews 2:10).

God wants a family, and he created you to be a part of it. This is one of God’s purposes for your life, which he planned before you were born. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love him, honor him, and reign with him forever.

“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5).

Because God is love, he treasures relationships. His very nature is relational and he identifies himself in family terms: Father, Son, and Spirit. The Trinity is God’s relationship to himself. It’s the perfect pattern for relational harmony and we should study its implications.

God already exists in loving relationship to himself so he’s never been lonely. He didn’t need a family – he desired one, so he devised a plan to create us, bring us into his family, and share with us all he has.

This gives God great pleasure.