REPOST Today’s AMI QT Devotional, provided by Jabez Yeo who is now a friend of AMI, was first posted on February 20, 2017. He is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania (B.S.) and Columbia International University where he studied Islam (M.A.).
Devotional Thought for This Morning
“Orphans or Children of God?”
Galatians 4:4-5
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
If any group of sports fans understood the misery of losing, it was fans of the Chicago Cubs. Leading up to the 2016 season, the Cubs had not won the World Series—baseball’s ultimate prize—in 108 years. Furthermore, the Cubs would fall short in the most agonizing ways whenever they made the playoffs, leading some to believe that the team was cursed. Thankfully, on November 2nd 2016, the Cubs finally won the World Series—and Chicago exploded with joy. At the victory parade, there were over five million fans celebrating, the 7th largest gathering in human history.
For the Cubs fans, they knew what the appropriate reaction was to their long-awaited victory: joy, freedom from anxiety, gratitude, etc. While we may not all be Cubs fans, as Christians, we have received the ultimate victory through Jesus: victory over death, sin and Satan. We were condemned by the law and its burden was too great for us to carry; but through Jesus, who was born under the law (Gal. 4:4), we have been redeemed under the law and by faith and are now adopted as sons and daughters (Gal. 4:5).
If such an amazing victory is ours, where is our joy and freedom? More often than not, such lack reveals the fact that we live as spiritual orphans instead of God’s children. Instead of walking in faith and living according to God’s promises, we live on a succeed/fail basis, using our accomplishments to compare ourselves to others, which leads to either pride or depression. Instead of remembering that there is no striving in love, we labor under a sense of unlimited obligation, believing that everything depends on us.
Instead of finding satisfaction in God alone, we look for satisfaction in our idols, “drinking from other cisterns” instead of the living water (Jeremiah 2:13).
For the next two weeks, we will be going through how our orphan-like tendencies can creep into our everyday lives. But thankfully, we will also be going through how we can experience the new life promised to us as God’s children. Let’s pray that God would reveal more of Himself.
Prayer: Father, thank You that I can call You exactly that: Father. I am not alone but I have You as my Father,
Friend and Lover. Yet, I confess that I live as if You do not exist. I confess that I do not live in freedom or joy but in self-righteousness and fear. I confess that my life does not reflect the promises You have given me. Bring me back to You again. In Your Name I pray. Amen.
Lunch Break Study
Read Romans 8:14-5: For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Bible Reading for Today: Deuteronomy 16
Questions to Consider
1. How do these verses describe those who are living under fear?
2. We are no longer slaves to fear but children of God. How then should we live?
3. What fears do you need to surrender to God today?
Notes
1. Those who live in fear are described as slaves. They are not free to live in power and joy but are chained to their own anxieties.
2. As children of God, we should be led by the Spirit who reminds us of our adoption to sonship. As children, we can continually cry out to our Father for His help in the midst of our helplessness.
3. Personal response (e.g., fear of failure, fear of being abandoned, fear of death, etc.)
Evening Reflection
What other truths of being a child of God did He reveal to you today? If He hasn’t, take some time and ask Him to speak to You. Once He does, thank Him and ask Him for faith to live that truth out.