Good Morning All,
Gal. 4:6; “And because you are
sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!
Father!”
Every so often, we find a verse in the Bible
that says so much to us in so few words.
This is one of those verses. In
verse 4 we read where God sent Jesus at just the right time, born of a woman
(human nature), born under the law (he was subject to the law of God and
man). In verse 5 we read the why; to
redeem us so that we might receive the adoption of sons (we’re in the family
again). But in a lot of ways, those two
verses are just technicalities. These
two verses tell us when, why, and what but they don’t tell us: so, what? So, what if God did this, what is the benefit
for me?
Verse 6 is the meat and potatoes of
Christianity. It speaks to the heart of
our faith and to the center of our hope.
Paul uses a form of logic that makes the case plainly and yet sometimes
we miss it. Since Jesus died under the
law, he redeemed us, and we are adopted as sons of God. Therefore, God sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts, crying ABBA!! FATHER!!.
God has restored, through faith, our place in his kingdom. When you look through the Old Testament and
you look at the prayers in the Old Testament, you see prayers made to God
Almighty, to the Lord our peace, to the Lord our righteousness; all kinds of
prayer but not prayers to Our Father who art in heaven. The faithful of the Old Testament
prayed. They prayed with earnestness and
in faithfulness, but they prayed to a God that was removed from them. God sustained them and protected them, but He
was at a distance because God is holy and pure; the people were not.
So, the people had to have a priest offer a
sacrifice and pray on their behalf and they prayed to this faithful God from a
distance. But all that changed for us
and for all believers. Remember in
Matthew’s account of Jesus’ death, the first thing Matthew records is the
tearing of the temple curtain from top to bottom. That heavy piece of cloth kept the people
from the Altar of God, kept them from coming directly to God. But when Jesus, the perfect, ultimate
sacrifice died, God ripped the curtain, threw it open and called to us come
back, come in and let’s talk.
The perfect conversation that Adam and Eve
had, when they walked with God in the cool of the morning, is restored through
Jesus. Now you and I, as God’s children,
can come to him and cry our Father, Father.
Scripture tells us that God leans in to
hear what we say and just like any loving parent or grandparent when that
little one does not quite know what to say, we know what they mean. God knows what we mean. He knows our needs and our wants even before
we do, and He listens even more intently than any parent or grandparent could
ever listen. We are family, we are the
apple of God’s eye, he leans in to hear us, but do we take advantage of
this? We can pray whenever and wherever
we want, God wants us to pray, He wants us to call on him; He wants us to
continue this loving conversation of grace and mercy. God is listening; start talking.
Abba, we too
often fail to come to you as we should.
Too often we bear the weight of fear and sin upon our shoulders when you
have already removed them. Be with us,
strengthen our faith that we may boldly come to you with all of our
petitions. We are your sons, Father, we
ask that you continue to bless and guard us for Jesus’ sake, in whose precious
name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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