Adopted, not Orphaned

Devotional Reading: 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.” Romans 8:15 NLT

Before we are saved by Jesus. We are poor autonomous orphans with no hope and nothing to offer but our sin and filthy rags of “good works.”1 Peter 2:9 tells us, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

When we are saved, we are not just adopted into the family of God, but also into the Kingdom of God. We become a child of the King. That makes us princes and princesses!

Our sin is washed white by the blood of Jesus, and our “good works” which were once just filthy rags, are used by God for the good of His people and for His glory. God could have left us in our dead, grimy, orphaned state, but He chose to raise us to new life and to adopt us as joint heirs with Christ.

For our part, we need to shed that orphan state of mind. We are no longer autonomous, dependent only on ourselves for survival. We are part of a family and a Kingdom with a loving, gracious, almighty Father at the head. The same God Who commands the stars and holds every molecule of the entire universe in His hand, wants to nurture us and grow us. He is as much our Father as He is our King!

When we belong to Jesus, we are blessed to be a part of the greatest royal family that there ever was or will be! Our responsibility is to go forth as members of the family of God and the Kingdom of God, cooperating with the Holy Spirit to shed our old, dead, orphaned self, and to reflect our Savior to the world giving Him the glory.

Prayer and Confession
Thank you Jesus for bringing me into the family of God, to be partakers of an everlasting inheritance.

Further Reading: Galatians 4:4-6