“14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
(Romans 8:14-16)”
Adoption is a big word in our family. My husband was adopted and we adopted two children in addition to our five! That is another story. Why adopt? We had five children so we did not need more children and we certainly were not living on the rich side of town. We were living in a country where children lived on the roundabouts in poverty. As a family we decided to share our blessings with two little ones who had nothing. It was a family adventure and touched each of us differently. Paul says that when we believe in Jesus, we do not have a spirit of slavery that results in fear but we have a spirit of adoption that allows us to call God, “Daddy. When we pray “Our Father”, the Holy Spirit stands next to us affirming, witnessing, that we are indeed God’s children with the right to approach God. We do not stand alone, claiming relationship but God’s Spirit, God itself, stands with us affirming that relationship.
God created us and gave us the law to teach us how to live. But we sin; we want to do life our way, satisfying our wants. We want to be our own god. God incarnated in Jesus Christ, reaching out to us. Teaching us through a real human being. He obeyed the law. Jesus trusted his life totally in the Father’s hands. He walked through death and resurrected showing us that not even death can separate us from God’s love. Faith believes these promises and grows in that relationship. Adoption is God saying this sinner is mine. God’s love is greater than our sin!
When you pray the “Our Father” what does it mean to you? Let’s take the word family and make an acrostic about being adopted into the family of God. F stands for ______, A stand for ______, M stands for ______, I stands for ______, L stands for ______, and Y stands for ______. We can say “Abba, Father” or “Daddy.” Sit with him for a few minutes and share. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 