God Dwells In Our Heart

My wife Marianne and I adopted our daughter Sarah from Guatemala.  Sarah was born to a single mother who did not have the physical or financial stability to raise her.  Her mother gave her up and she was placed in an orphanage called Eagle’s Nest after she was born in Solola, Guatemala.  She lived at Eagle’s Nest for 10 months before we were able to bring her home July of 2008.  Before Sarah was adopted, she was in the vulnerable position of being without the provision and protection of a mother or father.  If we had not pursued and adopted Sarah, she would not have been part of a family and vulnerable to much suffering and difficulty.

READ: Galatians 4:3-7

God dwells inside the hearts of all those who are His ADOPTED children!  Aren’t all human beings God’s children?  The answer is NO!  By sin, we all have chosen to walk out on our Creator’s provision and protection and made ourselves spiritual orphans; helpless, hopeless, and vulnerable to the wrath of God.  Ephesians 2:1-2 says, “(we) were dead in our trespasses and sins, . . . and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  While in such vulnerable circumstances, it was not us who pursued God, it was God who pursued us by sending His Son to redeem us from slavery to sin and adopt us into His family.  What happens to those who have been adopted as God’s children? 

God’s adopted children are given the Holy Spirt by which we are able to call God “FATHER” (Gal. 4:6) – Sarah has been in our home now for 7 years.  During those years she has come to think and know of us as dad and mom.  When she wants to talk to us, tell us something, or get our attention she calls us “mommy” and “daddy”.  Does that make any sense?  Why would she do that?  She thinks of us, looks at us, and calls us father and mother because we pursued her at the most vulnerable moment in her life and adopted her and made her a permanent member of our family.  As a result of our adoption of Sarah, she has a sure place in her heart by which she knows us as her mother and father.  At the moment when we were most vulnerable, God sent His Son Jesus Christ for the purpose of adopting us and making us a permanent member of His family.  As a result of our adoption by God, we are given the Holy Spirit by which we have the supernatural desire and ability to know that God is our Father and we are His children!

God’s adopted children are HEIRS to the same INHERITANCE as His Son Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:7) – Sarah is privileged to the best of everything Marianne and I possess.  She is ours and we will give to her every material and spiritual blessing that we are capable of as parents.  Each and every one of our children, because of their relationship with us as our sons and daughters have special rights to everything that Marianne and I possess.  Whatever inheritance that Marianne and I have to give is reserved for OUR heirs who are OUR children.  Jesus Christ is God’s Son and therefore an heir, and we too, as adopted sons and daughters of God are heirs as well.  Romans 8:17 says, “the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”  According to 1 Peter 1:4 as heirs we have hope in an eternal inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept for (us) in heaven!”

CONCLUSION
In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul prays that, “according to the riches of (God’s) glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . . to comprehend . . . what is the breadth and the length and the height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”  When we are adopted, we know we are loved!  When God is our Father, we will have a strong sense inside of us that we are important and valuable, no longer hopeless, helpless, and vulnerable.  Have you accepted God's invitation to adopt you into His family?  Do you KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves you and that He is your Heavenly Father?  If not, it’s time to put your faith in Jesus Christ and become a child of God!