08/30/2026
Prayer Focus Week 3!
The Rev. Howard F.M. Childers is Westminster’s Pastor Emeritus and served as senior pastor from February 7, 1982, until June 30, 1998. This week’s prayer focus comes from one of his unforgettable sermons, entitled “Spittin’ Image.”
Read 1 John 3:1-3. Rev. Childers encourages everyone to reject identities which lead to misery and brokenness, and to accept your blessed, sweet, and true one, which is, Child of God. And what difference does that make? At the end of his sermon, he describes what it might be like when we arrive in heaven.
“Christians, do you realize who you are deep inside – where it counts the most? Do you know your truest identity? The moment you give your life to Christ . . . You become a child of God, God’s offspring, a chip off the Sacred Block. That’s your truest identity. That’s who you really are. You’ll arrive at that familiar place you’ve never before seen, but have always known, and you will instantly recognize it. And your other Family, Christ’s Family, will be gathered there to welcome you. The saints who have gone before you will ‘drink you in’ with deep reverence, their gentle eyes welling with tears, and they will ask about your life, how it went, was it all you’d hoped, and did you find the joy? And if you listen with your heart, you’ll hear their whispers. ‘Just look at him (look at her),’ one will say. ‘Why, he looks (she looks), just like Jesus.’ ‘Oh yes,’ another will whisper, ‘See, their hearts match’.”
“And then at last you’ll see Jesus. He’ll look at you with a steadfast, level gaze, and say, ‘Looking at you is like seeing myself in a mirror. You’re my spittin’ image.’ It’s a wonderful thing to be a child of God.”
In your prayers this week, include gratefulness for your identity as a child of God and for the hope we have in being like him when he appears (1 John 3:2). Pray for God to remind ourselves who we are before we are tempted or come to critical forks in the road. (3:3) And, finally, we need to pray that we are telling each other who we are. It’s a wonderful thing to know you’re God’s. We’re part of a beautiful body of Christ. Thank you, Jesus.
