Abba! Father!

Galatians 4:4-7 "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."

Paul points to our adoption to confront his opposition. He shows that those who claim to be the natural heirs of Abraham and seek to be justified by the law have put themselves in an inferior position. In these verses he contrasts the position of natural heir, which is no better than that of a slave, with the superior position of the adopted son.  God has no biological children. John 1:12-13 "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."  As children of God we have the privilege and the security to approach the creator of the universe as, "Abba! Father!"

In the July edition of Christianity Today, Russel Moore shared a story about the deadening silence he and his wife experienced while visiting their soon to be adopted sons in a Russian Orphanage.  The babies in this orphanage have learned that their cries for food, warmth, touch, and love will go unanswered.  So over time they quit crying. Moore tells how day after day he and his wife would say goodbye to the boys in silence. That is until the last day of this visit. He writes,  "Little Maxim fell back in his crib and let out a guttural yell. It seemed he knew, maybe for the first time, that he would be heard. On some primal level, he knew he had a father and mother now. I will never forget how the hairs on my arms stood up as I heard the yell. I was struck, maybe for the first time, by the force of the Abba cry passages in the New Testament, ones I had memorized in Vacation Bible School." *

How awesome is it that we know our heavenly father hears us?  How awesome is it for a child to know that his parents will hear his cries? Unfortunately, statistics show us that there are over 100 million orphans in the world today. Many of these children do not know the security of knowing their cries for warmth, food, and love will be answered.  "If any group of people should be inclined to visit orphans in their affliction in order that they might remove them from it, it should be those in whose hearts the Spirit has placed the "Abba! Father!" cry. It should be those who, through their adoption as sons in Christ, have the sure hope of final and full deliverance from "the sufferings of this present time" (Romans 8:18). **  We are not all called to adopt, but we are all called to care for the children of the world.  Many of these children live right in our own towns and states. 

How can you be used of God to help these children?

Don



* http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/july/10.18.html
** http://www.togetherforadoption.org/wp-content/media/Together-for-Adoption-eBook.pdf