TODAY’S SCRIPTURE Galatians 4:1-7
What if you, as a parent, were placed in a room with several other parents and an intercom? Meanwhile, the monitor is placed in another room with your baby and several other babies. If at any given time a baby cries, would you be able to know if it is your baby’s cry? All parents would answer that question with a resounding yes because every baby has a very distinctive cry. In the same manner, even the children of God have a distinctive cry.
In Galatians 4, Paul reminds the Galatians that they are no longer slaves serving under the Law of Moses or under the pleasures of this world, but they have become children of God (vs. 1-3). Paul then continues to remind them that they became God’s children because Christ was sent into the world. The reason why Christ came to earth to be “born of woman” “under the Law” and then die was to redeem them and ultimately us (vs. 4).
His redemption allows God to adopt us and to make us His children. However, this adoption is more than name only, but through the Holy Spirit He has changed our nature. We are full-fledged sons and daughters of the Creator. Now with a new nature and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we have a distinctive cry and an intimate relationship with God. Paul says we are able to cry out, “Abba! Father!” (vs. 6). Abba is an Aramaic term that shows the intimacy between a child and his father. It displays the type of relationship between a loving father and a dependent child.
Therefore, we have a distinctive way in handling the obstacles of life. We know that if we cry out to our Father, He hears us, will comfort us, and sustain us through our various trials and tribulations. We have faith that, amidst the cries of the world, God hears and knows our cries. This is how we face each day and sleep in peace each night.
Today, I will…read Mark 14:36 and Romans 8:12-16 and focus on how I need to respond to obstacles of life as a child of God with a distinctive cry.