Daily Devotions based the Sermon from January 10, 2021
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: A Mission-Minded Person Is Secure in Their Identity!
If you were not an only child, I am sure at some point you either told one of you siblings, “You’re adopted.” Or one of your siblings told you, “You’re not part of our family.”
The point they wanted to make? You really don’t belong to this family.
To be clear, these were not kind words. They usually sent your sibling or you with a tear in your eye to your parents seeking affirmation that you WERE their child.
With calm, mom gave you a hug and said, “Yes, you are our child. Don’t let _____ tell you differently.”
We all want a family to which to belong. Adopted or natural born, we all desire and appreciate a loving, nurturing relationship with a mom and dad who chose to put their name on you and make you part of their family.
Family has impact on identity…good and bad. How we see ourselves, is greatly influenced by our upbringing. Your experience may have great affirmations to your identity. Your experiences as a child perhaps have realities that challenge how you see yourself today.
No earthly family is perfect. So if we look for our identity solely in our earthly family, it will be insufficient.
So God gives us a new family and a new identity.
In our baptism, God put his name on us. He adopted us into his family of grace. Satan loves to be the ugly sibling that keeps trying to convince us that we are not children of God and don’t belong in his family. He gets us to believe lies that God won’t love us. He gets us to think that life in God’s family isn’t all that great.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. You are a child of God. Paul wanted to assure the readers of Romans of this very truth:
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
This is a foundational identity the Lord desires you embrace. It is deeper and more stable than any other identity we find in the world around us. You ARE a child of God…who is a mother, who is a father, who is a teacher, who is a student, who is a grandparent, etc.
The Almighty, powerful, perfect, Father in heaven is YOUR father!
Martin Luther put it this way with a brief commentary on the Lord’s Prayer:
With these words (“Our Father in heaven,”) God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.
Don’t let Satan convince you otherwise. By God’s love and grace…YOU are a child of God!
Apply: Begin to shift your thinking as you go about your day. Instead of your identity resting in your vocation and what you do during the day, remind yourself as you start your day, “I AM a child of God…who gets to ____________ (be a mom, go to work, be a student, etc.).” Note how it changes your outlook and perspective on your day.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the new identity you give me in my baptism. Lead me to embrace and live this gift and reality of being YOUR child each and every day!
Thank you for praying the following with us at Cross & Crown:
Day 3 – Jeremiah 33:3 “Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.”
Lord, we know You know all things. Lead and guide our process, and teach us what we do not know or do not practice well. May this ministry be Your ministry. May we simply keep in step with You, relying on your wisdom.