Adopted
We have been called the children of God for that is what we are.
When my mother in law was growing up, her grandparents ran a grocery store in a small town in Oklahoma. She loved to spend time there after school. She wanted to help out and tried to write tickets, but that was not her strong point. They had to be written out by hand and added up by hand. Someone else had to rewrite them to recover from her help. She loved being at the store and to this day she comes alive when she talks about it. If she wanted a snack after school, she could help her self to big slices of meat and cheese from the deli.She loved the bottles of cold chocolate milk that they sold, and got upset when anyone else had the gall to buy one of "her" chocolate milks. She could also get ice cold cokes out of the cooler filled with ice. Next door to the grocery store was a jewelry store. She went in one day after school and picked out a ring. She told the lady at the counter to charge it to Lumpkin's Grocery store. Her mother was not impressed with her initiative and she had to take the ring back.
While her mother didn't approve of her actions, I love the heart behind what she did. No one else had the position that she did because no one else had the relationship. She was the only one that could get snacks from the store without paying. She was the only one who could even dream of charging something to the store. She could do it because of her status as part of the family..
As children of God, we are sometimes hesitant to ask God for what we need. The most common reasons I have heard or used are these.
1 God is too busy. He has a whole universe to run.
A variation of this that I have used is, "Bob's problem is much bigger than mine. I won't bother him with mine."
2 We are not worthy. As soon as we get it together we will talk to God about what we need. My variation on this theme was to make sure I have all the reasons I need and/or deserve the help or blessing. Somehow I decided that this was the best way to convince my dad to help me and it has carried over into every relationship with authority, including my relationship with God.
3. We can handle it ourselves. Great idea, right? We are so capable of handling our lives on our own.
What if my mother in law had used these reactions with her grandparents? What if she came into the store and saw someone buying a full basket of groceries and said, "Tom needs a lot of food so I better not get a chocolate milk today." She was secure in her ability to get what she needed and in the source of what she needed. Imagine her coming in from school and saying to her granddad, "I need a snack and I should be able to get one because my homework is done, I didn't spill anything on my dress and my hair is nice and neat." Can you picture her coming in at 11 years old and going to the kitchen to cook a meal by herself rather than accept what was readily available for her in the store.
We have no need of any of these responses with God. He has invited us to "come boldly before the throne of grace that we may find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need."(Hebrews 4:16) 1 John 3:1 tells us , "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Romans 8:23 says we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.
This week let us "ponder these things in our hearts" Let it sink into our spirits who we are as children of God and live up to that this week.
