We've Been Adopted!!!

Feeling unattached, disconnected, unloved, alone?  Find out how God has adopted you into his family!

Prayer:

Hi God, it's us again, the ragged people who are trying too hard to hold everything together.  We need you to tie our loose ends together, to make us whole again in heart, mind, soul, and body.  Only you can do that.  So here we are, Jesus, save us, make us whole again in the power of your Spirit and love.  Amen.

Ephesians 1: 1-14


Comments

My son and I were reading a mystery the other night in which orphans were secretly being forced to work in a secret mining operation and in secret labs where strange experiments were being done.  The sad orphans were carried from place to place hidden in the back of sour smelling garbage trucks.  They were barely fed and clothed and without anyone in the world to know they were in trouble or to protect them.  These kids longed for someone to welcome them into a family where they could be loved and cared for. 

It amazes me that there are more people on our planet than ever before in recorded history, and we have more ways to communicate than ever before and yet millions of people still feel alone, unappreciated, unknown, and unloved.  To those feeling alone, orphaned, or in destructive family situations, there is great news from the Bible today...you've been adopted into a loving family!  "He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1: 5-6)."

The Bible reveals that one of the consequences of our sins is that we are cut off from God, alienated from his family.  In a sense, we all have orphaned ourselves by choice.  Thankfully, God's love stretches beyond justice into mercy and grace.  God lovingly offers himself in Jesus Christ on the cross as the atonement for our sin, satisfying the just penalty of our sin, and providing the way for us to be adopted back into his family.  The height, depth, width, and length of God's love for us cannot be measured!

What does it mean to be adopted?  First it means we have a new relationship with our God who loves us.  Secondly, it means that we are given the right to inherit the fullest life in God's Kingdom.  Third, it means that we have the responsibility to represent the family name and to enter the family mission to draw all things to peace with God through Jesus Christ. 

Let's give thanks to God for the riches that his grace freely gives us in Jesus Christ!  Let's live in and for our Heavenly Father and for His family above all.

Life Question

1.  In my work, my home, and where I go every day, how can I represent Jesus Christ and my
     heavenly family well?
2.  November is national adoption month.  Pray about adopting a child into your family or about
     helping mentor someone near you who needs some direction.

Closing Prayer

Thank you, Lord, for loving us enough to die for us and for welcoming us back into your family.  Give us grace to live as your representatives in our day to day lives.  Help us work with you to bring others into your ever expanding family, the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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