Adoption

This week I've been studying the Holy Spirit and his purpose in the Christian life. Every time I read over those verses in Romans 8 about us being adopted as God's kids, it makes me smile. Probably because adoption is a very real part of who I am, how my family came to be, so perhaps it is a concept I can relate to on a different level than families who don't have the same frame of reference that I do.

I am also reading The 10 Critical Laws of Relatonship by Robb Thompson. Great book! I'm only on the second chapter, but I've found a lot of truth and information to chew on. It discusses defining relationships as well as why certain relationships fail and others succeed. Very inciteful!

Tonight, these two studies collided for me as only God can orchestrate. I love when that happens!

Romans 8:15 says that the Holy Spirit comes to us as the spirit of adoption, by which we are able to call God "Abba Father" or "Daddy God" as one translation puts it. So it is only by the Spirit of God that we are able to define our relationship with God. It is a part of his purpose to help us understand the closeness God wants to have with us as his children. Without the Spirit, we are continually comparing God and our relationship with him to earthly relationships, assigning human qualities to a perfect Father as we attempt to define our expectations. And we minimize his love and the intimacy he feels toward us.

There is something about being chosen, wanted, selected that validates us. It's more than "chance" that we are His. He searched for us and is still drawing us close to his heart.

Adopted love that is chosen and intentional. I have chosen to love complete strangers, not related by blood to me, and bring them to become a part of me. It was and is a very intentional choice I have made and it is not an easy choice, to be taken lightly. Love, true love is not a warm fuzzy feeling that grows and dies based on the moment. No, true love is a forever choice you have to make again and again, and that is what God has done for us. He adopted us, in our sin, in our ugliness, because he wanted to make us a part of himself. 

Our human minds can't understand it, but the Holy Spirit, as he reveals God's heart to us, helps us to get a better picture of the greatness of his love for and connection to us.