Thursday, October 9, 2008

I Have a Father

These past few days I have had many moments of tears come upon me. There has been tears both in joy and in humility. The LORD has been giving me eyes to see a little more clearly how much I truly need Him and am dependent upon Him for everything. If Christ were to remove His Hand from even one aspect of our world, we would be no more.

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining ALL things by his powerful word." (Hebrews 1:3 NIV)

I think of this not only in the sense of physical existence but in spiritual existence as well. I was at one time dead and seperated from God. By the power of His Word He awoke me from the dead and is strengthening and enabling me to know Him and to walk in His ways.

I also am beginning to realize more deeply how much grace and mercy I need from God to continue in my walk with Him. Without Him changing my heart, I will chase after everything BUT God. I get so entangled with lesser gods constantly and I NEED Him to change my heart. It is a humbling thing to realize that I need my heart and mind to change but am unable to do it myself. No amount of Scripture reading, no amount of going to church, no amount of anything apart from the work of God will ever change me.

So I have had this revelation going and I read about some friends of mine that are going to try to adopt again. I think of all of the loss they have experienced in some aspects of their lives together and can relate to some of it to what I have experienced with my sister and brother-in-law and how deep of a loss issues relating to having children can be.

Things like that make you realize how helpless we are as people. It also makes me really joyful to think about how God has helped us through Christ by the act of adoption. Once we were not His people, but now we are. Adoption is such an odd thing because someone that was once considered (at least by some people) of no value or not worth keeping is redeemed and brought into a place of worth and value by the person(s) doing the adoption.

Christ helps us in our helplessness by adopting us and gives us the commandment and the desire to go out and tell other people so that they might be adopted as well. So in essence we are helpless and Christ adopts us because the Father is not able to have a relationship with us when sin is involved and then after we are adopted, Christ calls us to go out and help others so that they will know of God's plan of adoption.

These friends of mine have adopted already and it is such a joy to see their little boy. It is such a natural fit for him to be in there family that I know that it was God's plan all along for him to be with them. I have been praying for them to have peace these past several weeks and the areas I thought I was praying for peace in might have been in the aspect of them wanting to adopt. I can't quite explain what happened inside of me when I read that they were going to try to adopt this child they really felt drawn towards but something inside of me leaped for joy. I was feeling in every bit of my soul how right this was for them to do this. They are already pregnant right now but still feel drawn to adopt.

I felt my heart crying out of how gracious God is in all of His workings and how He has a plan for us. He has adopted us and gives us the chance to adopt other people. Sometimes it can be a mentor type thing but it is also a physical adoption that He also calls us to as well.

Because people adopt, babies who might be unwanted now have a Father and a Mother. They experience how life is supposed to be but experience it that much richer because they know what life was like without it.

I do not know how easy this post to follow but I pray that we may all catch a vision for God's plan of adoption and that we might even go out and adopt children who need Father's and Mother's.

Praise God for all He is doing in my friends' lives!

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-

3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;

16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.

17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-

18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.

21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.

22 Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
(Psalm 103 NIV)

1 comment:

  1. Thanks Brad! We still need those prayers! Keep it up brother!

    ReplyDelete