Grace / Life with God
You Belong to God
God calls believers His children. He means for us to live with Him as family.
When Paul tells Christians what God has done for them, one of the things he says is that God adopted us as His children through Jesus Christ. He says God planned this in love. He wanted us in His family. ()
That ought to change what we expect when we come to Him.
You can talk to God as your Father: tell Him what's wrong, ask for help, thank Him for what's good, and bring Him the things you don't understand. You have a relationship with Him, and He's the one who made that possible.
You have a place in His household
Paul uses the language of adoption and inheritance. To be adopted as a son meant you became an heir. He says that to believers from all walks of life: women and men, slaves and free people, Jews and Gentiles. People who had very different places in the world all had a place in God's household.
You belong in His house. You belong at His table. God has given you a share in the future of His family.
That matters if you've always thought of yourself as the person who doesn't quite fit. It matters if somebody else has treated you like you're less than the people who belong. Through Jesus, God has brought you near and made you one of His own. Paul calls us members of God's household. ()
There's a difference between being allowed in somebody's house and being at home there. God calls us His children because He wants us to know what kind of relationship this is. You can enjoy being with Him and expect Him to care about you.
God has given you His Spirit
Paul tells those believers that when they heard the good news and believed in Christ, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is God's guarantee of their inheritance. ()
God has marked you as His own. He's given you Himself. The Holy Spirit is with you as you learn to live as God's child, and His presence is God's assurance about your future.
Later, Paul says that through Jesus we have access to the Father by the Spirit. That's a wonderful thing to know when you're trying to figure out how to pray. You're coming to your Father through the Son who saved you, with the Spirit God has given you. God has provided everything that makes it possible for you to come to Him. ()
Tell Him the truth, whether that's a sin to admit or help you need. You belong to Him while you're learning.
He welcomes us together
Every week, Christians come to the Lord's Table and take the bread and the cup. Jesus gave us that meal. We remember His body given for us and His blood shed for us, and we're reminded again that we're welcome with Him.
God invites us to His table and serves us. He delights to have His sons and daughters there. That's a pretty good thing to remember about yourself.
The people sitting at the table with you belong to Him, too. God has brought us into a family. We have brothers and sisters to love, to learn from, to help, and to receive help from. His grace gives us a place with each other.
This is part of the life God's given us in Jesus. We get to know Him as our Father, enjoy His goodness, and take care of one another as His children. You have a place in that family.
— tobe