This week’s devotions are based on the Week 7 “Explore God” – Can I Know God Personally? (WATCH HERE)
Galatians 6:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Can you have a relationship with God…is like asking the question, “Can I have a relationship with my dad.” I get that there are all too many kids who do not know or have a relationship with their dad. This is a terribly sad state of affairs in our country and world. However, one of the reasons God established the family unit with a committed marriage into which to bring children is so that individuals could experience a microcosm of his relationship with us and our relationship with him. How so?
Parents are always the one who establish the relationship with their child. A child doesn’t choose their parents, the parents’ love for a child establish the relationship with their child. The child may not always appreciate it or may question it or even walk away from it, but a faithful parent will never walk away from their child.
When God makes us his child by faith, he is the one who takes the initiative to bring us to himself. He gives us his Spirit in the waters of baptism and puts his name on us, making us his child.
The result? We get the privilege of calling God our Father. Like every attentive parent can pick their child’s voice out of the crowd, so God, our Father, tunes in whenever his children pray to him. We can be assured as children of God that when we cry out “Abba, Father” that the Lord hears and will respond for the best of his children.
The result? We are given the status of heir. This is a big deal. Like a parent who writes into their will a portion of their estate to each of their children, so God writes us into his will and ensures us a portion of his estate…a room in heaven. Again, the child doesn’t earn a spot in the will, the will is an expression of the parents’ love for their children and the fact they want to bless them after their death. However, a child can turn against their parents and say, “I don’t care. Take me out of the will.” This response is not the fault of the parents, but the fault of the child. In a similar way, God in his love and grace write us into his will, a promise of his grace that he has a spot in heaven for us. Of course we can break the relationship by indicating to God that he should write us out of his will, that would be entirely our doing.
The reality of our relationship with God is that he gets the credit for establishing it and we get the benefit of living in the relationship with our Father who loves us immensely. The relationship is secure, not because we have earned or deserved the relationship, but because God is our Father, and our Father loves us, loves you tremendously.
Apply: What changes when you know God is your Father and he is the one who initiated and secures your relationship with him?
Prayer: Father, thank you for your love that never fails and never gives up on me. AMEN.