Cherish Your Place in Jehovah's Family

 SHOW JEHOVAH THAT YOU WANT TO BE PART OF HIS FAMILY

Show your love for Jehovah by serving him with your whole heart.  (Read Mark 12:30.)  Of all the things that we have been kindly given by God, perhaps one of the greatest gifts is the ability to worship him.  She show Jehovah that we love him by 'observing his commandments.' (1 John 5:3) Speaking for his Father, Jesus commanded us to make disciples. baptizing them.  (Matthew 28:19)  He commanded us to love one another.  (John 13:35) Jehovah will make obedient ones a part of his worldwide family of worshippers. - PSALM 15:1, 2.

Show love for others. Love is Jehovah's foremost quality.  (1 John 4:8) We  imitate him when we show love for others.  (Ephesians 5:1)  Jehovah showed love for us before we ever knew him. (1 John 4:9, 10)  One of the best ways  we can show love for people is b y helping them learn about Jehovah while there is still time.  (Read Matthew 9:36, 38.)  In doing so, we give them an opportunity to become perspective members of God's family.  After a person gets baptized, we must continue to love and respect him. (1 John 4:20, 21)  What does this involve? For one thing, we give him the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. For example, we would not impute bad or selfish motives to him.  Instead, we would show honor for our brother, considering him to be superior to us. - Read ROMANS 12:10; PHILIPPIANS 2:3.

Show mercy and kindness to all people.  If we want to be among those who can rightly call Jehovah their Father forever, we must apply God's Word in our lives.  For instance, Jesus taught that we should show mercy  to all people, even our enemies.  (Luke 6:32-36)  We may find that at times this difficult for us to do . If so, we must learn to think and act like Jesus. When we do our best to obey Jehovah and imitate Jesus, we show our heavenly Father that we want to be part of his family forever.

Protect the reputation of Jehovah's family.  In a literal family, it is not uncommon for a little boy to copy his older brother.  If the older sibling applies Bible principles in his life, he will serve as a good example for his younger brother. If the older one turns to doing what is wrong, the younger brother may follow his bad example  it is  similar  in Jehovah's family, if a once faith Christian later adopts apostate thinking or chooses an  immoral or corrupt way of life,  others may be tempted to join him in doing bad.  Those who do so harm the reputation of Jehovah's family of worshippers.  (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)  We must avoid following bad example and not allow anything to pull us away from our loving heavenly Father.  

Trust in Jehovah instead of material things.  Jehovah promises that he will provide us with food, clothing, and shelter  if we seek his Kingdom first and live by his righteous standards.  (Psalm 55:22; Matthew 6:33)   With that in mind, we avoid thinking  that the material things this world offers will bring us security and lasting happiness. We know that the only way we can gain real peace of mind is by doing Jehovah's will.  (Philippians 4:6, 7) Even if we can afford to buy many things.  Might we become too attached to our possessions?   We  must remember that God expects us to be productive members of the family. That means  we should not allow ourselves to be distracted.  We certainly do not want to be like the young man who turned down the opportunity to serve Jehovah as well and the potential to be adopted as one of his sons-all because he was attached to a few earthly possessions.! - MARK 10:17-22.

Next time: Cherish Your Place in Jehovah's Family - WHAT JEHOVAH'S CHILDREN WILL ENJOY FOREVER

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