GOD’S GRACIOUS ADOPTION

“Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ… and it gave Him great pleasure.”  (Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT)

There is something in you that God loves. Not just appreciates but loves. You cause His eyes to widen, His heart to beat faster. He loves you. And He accepts you [in Christ]…

To live as God’s child is to know, at this very instant, that you are loved by your Maker not because you try to please Him and succeed, or fail to please Him and apologize, but because He wants to be your Father. Nothing more. All your efforts to win His affection are unnecessary. (John 1:12) All your fears of losing His affection are needless. (Isaiah 43:1) You can no more make Him want you than you can convince Him to abandon you. The adoption is irreversible. You have a place at His table. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

#5899

ACCEPTING GOD’S GRACE

God saw our entire lives from beginning to end, birth to hearse, and in spite of what He saw, He was still convinced “to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT)

We can now live “like God’s very own children, adopted into His family -- calling Him ‘Father, dear Father’… And since we are His children, we will share His treasures -- for everything God gives to His Son, Christ, is ours, too.” (Romans 8:15,17 NLT)

It really is this simple. To accept God’s grace is to accept God’s offer to be adopted into His family.

Your identity is not in your possessions, talents, tattoos, kudos, or accomplishments. Nor are you defined by your divorce, deficiencies, debt, or dumb choices. You are God’s child. You get to call Him “Papa.” You “may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12 NIV) You receive the blessings of His special love (1 John 4:9-11) and provision (Luke 11:11-13). And you will inherit the riches of Christ and reign with Him forever (Romans 8:17). 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

#5462

WE ARE FAMILY – Part 1

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15-16 NLT)

Part of the normalness and significance of churches for the New Testament writers came from the association of these groups with homes. Houses were not only the context for these gatherings, they provided an essential perspective on what living as Christians meant. Christians were family and… this experience mirrored the heavenly reality.

The New Testament almost always used the Father/Son image to explain the relationship of Jesus and God. It was, therefore, natural to describe Christians as adopted into this family (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Galatians 4:4-6). Thus Christian growth was a matter of maturing from infancy to adulthood (Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 12:4-9) and of learning to relate to each other intimately and responsibly as in an ideal family (e.g., 1 Corinthians 8:11-13; Galatians 6:10; Colossians 3:12-14; 1 John 2:28 – 3:3). 

-- Mark Strom in “The Symphony of Scripture: Making Sense of the Bible’s Many Themes”

#5422

REMEMBERING WHAT GOD HAS DONE

“God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.”  (Ephesians 1:5)

Remembering what God has done is encouraging. Do you need to be encouraged today? I get down when I focus on myself and fail to look up at Jesus. When I look down, I forget all the blessings I have and all the blessings that await me in the future. When I begin to focus on all that God has done for me it lifts me up out of muck and mire…

I have learned it is beneficial to take time to record what the Lord has done in my life. This colorful roadmap of my journey helps me remember God’s faithfulness. When I get focused on the fact that I’m not where I want to be, I forget how far the Lord has brought me. My journal helps me refocus on God as I remember what He has done.

Remembering is important because we easily forget. Remember where He found you and how He adopted you into His family. 

-- Adapted from Tom Graves, The Light of Christ Journey Blog

#5243

ABBA, FATHER

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15-16 NLT)

The ability of love to speak to the deepest places of our hearts never goes away. Have you ever noticed how people in love sometimes speak to each other in baby talk? It is immensely intimate and private – and it’s off-putting to a third party. If you do it, I wouldn’t want to hear it. But we do it because it is the tenderest language we know.

Jesus’ prayer life demonstrated this intimacy, because He called God “Abba,” an Aramaic word much like “Dada” or “Momma.” (Jesus spoke in Aramaic, and some portions of the New Testament are written in Aramaic rather than Greek.)  “Abba” was a Jewish child’s first word, because it was so easy to say. Somehow when Jesus was with God, the tender love that an adult offers to a child to give strength is what He received from His Father. It rewired His nervous system.

It does not stop there, for Jesus told His followers that they could have this same experience. This is why Paul wrote that by the Spirit we too can say, “Abba, Father.” This is what happens when we are praying…

God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children. (Romans 8:16 The Message)

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

#4285