“For you have not received a
spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of
adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself
testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs
also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so
that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:15-17)
Before our time of prayer began last Sunday afternoon,
our friend, Don Z., revealed something of his life to us. He’s wonderfully open
anyway, and he took us back to a time after his unfortunate divorce. He told us
about his son, Dan, who stayed with his grandmother (Don’s ex-wife’s mother) for
a time after the couple split-up. The grandmother did two very interesting and
troublesome things to Don’s son, Dan, her grandson: 1) she called him by the
name, “Rick,” instead of "Dan,"
his real name, and 2) she falsely told the young man that he was adopted.
It would appear that she did both of those things out of
anger. “Rick,” she said, was the name SHE had
wanted for him, and apparently she had never forgiven her daughter and
son-in-law for not following her wishes. And it seems that she continued to be
so angry at her son-in-law, Don, that she would rather her grandson was adopted
than have any blood relationship with the man her daughter married.
Does all that sound excessive to you? It does to me, and
yet, such anger is altogether too common in relationships that instead should be
filled with love and acceptance. That’s what we have often seen as the aftermath
of crisis events in the lives of ordinary people like you and me; events that
stem from the death of a close relative, the steps that led to divorce, the loss
of income, or from severe illness. Instead of coming together in the face of common
loss, the parties in the marriage, and everyone else concerned, often turn on
each other and on their little ones with confusing, unforgiving anger.
There is in our lives the important element called
“identity.” There’s a deep need within us all to
know who we are, which usually is defined by who we are associated with, and
also by the labels applied to our lives. Often adopted people can’t rest until
they discover who their “birth parents” are, even though they had relatively
happy childhoods with their adopted families. Just like Don’s son, Dan, who
was made to be confused about his identity, we want to know who we
REALLY are, and of course, it is hoped we will have reason to LIKE what we are.
And something which identifies us as special in our
employment is important to feelings of well-being. The various
professions and lines of work can make people feel “special” about
themselves. Titles such as “judge,” "engineer" or “doctor” give identity to those who have
them. Significant military titles are often kept by those who have earned them,
long after the years of military service were completed. Police badges give a
feeling of safety and yes, comfort to those who have them. And there are
hospital personnel who wear stethoscopes, not only for medical reasons, but also
because the items represent their identity as significant persons in the medical
field. And so on.
And then someone comes along like Dan’s (also known as
Rick’s) grandmother, who plants seeds of doubt as to who or what we are, and it
shakes us to the foundation of our souls. If you have to give up that badge
for some reason or another, and you must suddenly leave your profession under
questionable circumstances, it leaves the empty feeling of: “I used to be
somebody, but now I’m not!”
We’ve seen this in pastor’s wives when the pastor goes
to be with the Lord. Whether or not the wife has a specific ministry in the
church, she does have a real (but usually unpaid) position – she is the pastor’s wife
and everyone knows it. Others in the church defer to her, ask her questions and
invite her to be on important committees. Suddenly she has not only 1) lost her
husband, but also 2) she has lost her identity as the pastor’s wife, 3) the
income he produced will soon be gone, and 4) within a few months she will be
asked to vacate the parsonage to make room for the new pastor’s family!
Now these are terrible losses and when we get to such a
place in life, we tend to acquire a lost feeling and need to find out who we
really are. It’s all common at that point to lapse into hopelessness; many
struggle for years, and some do not recover at all. Others do, with the help of
God.
That’s a key reason why the Bible is so important to us
all. Yes it contains prophetic information, and yes it is full of wise
statements that we all need to hear, but it also shows us in a variety of ways –
exactly who we really are, and more, who God intends us to be. Mostly, the
Bible is full of the biographies of real people, many who have suffered
loss and then found out that their true identities are not merely in
earthly circumstances at all, but their true hope, like ours, is in the
Lord.
In our Scripture for today and in its context, we are
reminded of an important fact in human history that is often ignored: Almighty
God is our Creator and His intention always has been to give us – everything!
(Genesis 1). And note that we are one people. The so-called differences in
identity between
us are small – you and I and all the rest of us are amazingly close
– we are family. But as a family, we have chosen to find our identity in this
world. He IS your destiny and
your identity. He knows your name.
The “spirit of slavery leading to
fear” in today’s Scripture exists because people
have rejected Him. Through the work of the Lord, we become “sons” of the King, and we can legitimately refer to
God the Father as our “Abba,” a word used by small
children who have utter trust in their Daddy. The
word for “Father” is the Greek word, “Pater,” the word used by an older son or daughter.
Both our emotions and our minds reveal Him to be our Daddy, our Father. In
Christ, you're a child of the King.
And it's more than emotions and intellect that
reveals our identity and relationship to God - it’s also the
Holy Spirit, who is continually reminding us: “we are children of God… fellow heirs with Christ.” And yes, there is
suffering in this world, but we know through the same Holy Spirit that we will
ultimately “also be glorified” with our Lord. God
knows who you really are. He has a PURPOSE for your life, and He loves
you.
Dear Lord, I trust in You. You are my Savior and my identity
is in You. Thank You for setting me free and accepting me
into the family of God. In Jesus Name. Amen.
