Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 33. I am a Child of God (so I can do hard things)

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Hello human.

Today is about being a child of God.

Who made the commitment.

2 Corinthians 6:18

18 “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

 

Who makes it happen.

John 1:12

12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

And how it happens.

Galatians 3:26

26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

 

Through our faith (administered by the Holy Spirit) we are divinely persuaded that Jesus died on the cross for us.

But when Jesus says we will never enter the kingdom of God if we do not receive it like a child what does this mean?

Mark 10:13-16

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

 

It is not because children are pure of heart, that they are born innocent. They simply are not. It takes little time to discover that, as a parent, or anyone who is around a developing infant into toddler into child into tween, then teen, then “you’re 18, so, what’s next…”

But children begin life responding to and receiving what we give them—food, comfort, relief, rest. They don’t deny them out of pride. They accept being taken care of, and receiving the world created for them. For quite a while that is all they can do. Receive. And cry out.

We must receive the Kingdom of God as that little child. The world He created on His own, that we had not one thing to do with, that we have done nothing toward earning or deserving it. That we are born into His Kingdom. And He expects to hear, waits for, and listens intently for when we cry out.

There is everlasting beauty in that. In bringing our trust to His table for all things, the little things—the next meal, a household crisis, a head cold, a bad day, an argument, an unexpected glitch in our morning schedule.

But with bigger, older life, we evolve in our intent, in our spiritual maturity, and just as parents raise their children to take on more responsibility, so our Heavenly Father leads the spiritual charge in what? In how we step up in our lives. How we move toward a steeper incline.

1 Corinthians 13:11-12

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 

This spiritual shift takes us from gathering for a familiar Sunday School story about Jesus, to being promoted from the “kiddie” table to the adult table at a holiday family gathering.

The conversation changes. We talk to our Father differently.

Consider,

Romans 8:12-17

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[a] And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

It’s the grown-up table. That we take the small and the big to Him, AND, that we open our hearts to the hard things He wants us to do.

Because we have a Father who will tell us how.

Because we have a Father who will love us through it.

Because we have a Father who has a house with many mansions, and a Son who is preparing a place for us.

Jesus says, if it were not so, he would have told us.

Well, Jesus told me this in 2020:  spend time spiritually raising up your daughter-in-laws. How lovely. But how completely full of land mines. Love mines. Because a son is involved. But the beautiful thing is that God knows how to bring us together with an enduring love that is about being sisters in Christ, that is above competing with my relationship with my sons. When we turn toward doing harder things, God bonds us together with fairness and steadfastness, the same qualities that bond any parent and child. And at times, I become the child, looking to them for support and encouragement. Because I am a child of God. I trust what He trusts.

Led by the Spirit

In verse 13, of Romans 8 Paul tells us that if we are led by the Spirit, that the Holy Spirit leads us out of sin. The verb is present tense, so this process keeps happening, because the Holy Spirit engages us to hate our sin, to want to make war on our sin. That we are being led in the direction of spiritually changing.

If we are led by the Spirit, we are children of God, according to verse 14. But it gets better.

Cry Out to your Abba, Father …

“Abba” is the defining term for father in the Aramaic language. It brings with it the intimacy and tenderness of a father raising his son or daughter. A Father who knows your first steps, your stumbles, your beginning and your end. It is used three times in the New Testament, by Jesus and Paul, to acknowledge that God knows them better than they know themselves. Each with a set path before they even take their first step.

Abba, Father embodies the connection that can only be felt between the Creator and the created. A Father that waits for His child to meet Him in his own way.

Verse 16 says that with the Holy Spirit we “cry” for our Abba, Father. That the Spirit testifies with us, it has to stand by us as we approach God, it gives evidence in our lives, shows that we believe and claim the blood of Jesus. That we are sanctified to approach our Creator.

Why are we “crying” for our Abba, Father?

Grown-up grief. Aging grief.

Complicated guilt.

Unbearable heartache.

Bottomless loss. A human pit of misunderstanding.

What else?

And through the Holy Spirit, we cry out Abba, Father for our divine nature, too.

For seasoned gratitude, maturing through a deeper sense of peace.

For a wise, unconditional love.

For a glimpse of His glory, the glory we strain to envision just beyond the path of suffering with our Savior.

So, what am I saying? Well, it’s a paradox.

The Holy Spirit is ready to testify for you. You should cry out more often.

Abba, Father doesn’t want to ground you. He has grown-up things for you to do.

He wants us to fall deeply in love with coming to Him with hard things, that we cannot even describe, but that we have the Holy Spirit to testify for us. I need this because I have some pretty soulful challenges I do not understand, that I do not know how to articulate to my Abba, Father. And He is ready for the rough terrain on my road that will make me stronger. If I cry out to Him for “the way through.”

In verse 17, Paul says we are children of God if we share in his sufferings so that we might share in His glory.

1 Peter 4:13

13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

 

David said in Psalm 34:15:

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

    and his ears are attentive to their cry;

 

It is through Him that you have the power and strength to move beyond being a child in your relationships. It is clear, God is clear that you are His child, and you belong to no one else. You lean on Him for everything so you can be strong with the people in your life.

The most challenging physical feat I can remember as a younger child was when my class did a group day trip on our bikes in about 4^th or 5^th grade. A few miles and back. I only remember that my bike, second-hand for sure, was slow, or was it me? I lagged the whole trip, a position I wasn’t used to. All my friends were closer to the front of the pack, and I was in the final group with people I never played with on the playground. I was so slow, so hot, tired, and ashamed of my status. I was surprised because I thought I would be good at it, and had looked forward to it. A painful miscalculation of aniticipation vs performance. I just couldn’t keep an accomplished pace when left to my own legs, my own bike, and mostly, my own will. My heart said:  “this is too hard.” It took days to shed my elementary-age gloom. In high school, I had a very successful bike trip with my best friend on a hot, summer day. Over-compensation for sure, trying to layer a better memory over the top of that first group bike ride. It’s too bad I processed it that way: the first memory made me grow more.

1 John 3:1

1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

 

This scripture brings us to a hard thing our Heavenly Father wants us to do.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ asks us to do because He died and rose for us.

The Holy Spirit leads us to do.

Show the people who are up close, and the people crossing our paths, the lavish love He has for them.

This lavish love is WHY we cry out for our Abba, Father.

1 Peter 1:3-4

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,

 

Our Abba, Father is listening for our cry, right now, in our earthly walk as His children. Through our faith, we are shielded by our Father’s power, and He is keeping our inheritance in heaven for us.

Unperishable.