Apparently people don’t have to address God as their Father, but if they do address Him as their Father the apostle Peter calls them to live for Him in the greatest reverence one can imagine. Get real and stay real before God -- that’s the issue. God knows our hearts better than we know them, so get real and stay real before God.

Maybe the question, “Who’s Your Father?” is the most important question. On one level I am a son of Samuel James Savage, Jr. On another and greater level I am a son of the Father who according to His great mercy has caused me to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Pet. 1:3). How I respond to the one who is my heavenly Father speaks volumes about who I am as a person going about my life during the time of my stay on earth (I Pet. 1:17).

Today the Father embraces me in “His great mercy” (I Pet 1:3) and ever reminds me that my life matters more to Him than anything silver or gold might provide. He has redeemed me “with precious blood…the blood Christ” (I Pet. 1:19) and established the life I live, both and now and in the future, upon the marvelous proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ “from the dead” (I Pet. 1:21).

Called to the deepest level of reverence for the God who would love us like that, all persons who “are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory” (I Pet. 1:21) are called to live “in obedience to the truth” (I Pet. 1:22), an obedience that leads us to “a sincere love of the brethren,” a love that calls us to “fervently love one another from the heart”(I Pet. 1:22).

God is an awesome Father and we celebrate Him best when we love one another. We are never more like our Father than when we “fervently love one another from the heart” (I Pet. 1:22). We reveal to the world how important God is to us in the way we love.