A Prayer About Gospel-Adoption
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Galatians 4:4-7
Most glorious Abba, meditating on this passage this morning took me back to the day my son and I were traveling in a panoramic train car from Resurrection Bay, Alaska, to Anchorage, for our flight home. Already filled with a week’s worth of stunning stories of salmon caught and eagles sighted, we were treated to an additional smorgasbord of environmental glory, as our train headed to the airport.
But right between us was a little fellow missing the wonder of your creation preferring the three inch screen and computer-generated stimulation of his Game Boy. Playing Game Boy while surrounded by unfettered glory! Oh, Abba, how much of my day is spent missing the unfettered glory of my adoption in Christ, as I seek and settle for much lesser “stimulation”?
This singular passage, among a wazoo of others, reminds me of who you really are, by nature and who I really am, through the gospel. Abba, you have given Jesus to fulfill all the regal and legal demands of your law, on my behalf, so that I might enjoy the full legal and regal rights of being your adopted son, for your glory!
And I wasn’t a cute little orphan playing around in the orphanage when you adopted me into your family and embrace. No, I was a foolish rebel running from you as fast as I could-a slave to sin and death. I’m not a choice child, I’m a chosen child! Thank you, thank you, thank you, most loving Abba!!!
As though that wasn’t enough, you’ve put your Spirit in my heart, permitting me and prompting me, to offer the cry of joy and, at times, the cry of desperation… Abba, Father… Abba, Father… Abba, Father! And as though even THAT wasn’t enough, you’ve made me an heir, a co-heir with Jesus, your quintessential, essentially glorious, Son! Everything you give Jesus, you give me, for you have given me to Jesus. Oh my…oh me oh my!
Abba, if I do not willingly throw out my various Game Boys out the window of the gospel-glory train, cause the batteries to be permanently in a state of run-down-ness, un-rechargeable forever. So very Amen I pray today, and every day, in Jesus’ name.