Spirit of Adoption

Think about how you come to God after a bad week. Your shoulders are up, the apology comes first, and you brace yourself for a bad review. It is the way a person walks into the boss's office when the numbers are down.

Paul says that way of coming has a name, and it is the wrong one: "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear." The word "again" is the one that stings. It means they had lived in fear once before, so living that way now would be going backward, which is worse than just falling short. Fear can keep a religion running for a long time. It gets people to church and keeps them well behaved. Yet it has never once made anybody feel at home with God.

Then Paul puts a word in your mouth, and he leaves it untranslated. "Abba" is Aramaic. It was the ordinary family word for father, used at home by small children and grown sons alike, a kitchen word and not a courtroom word. Churches that spoke Greek were saying it anyway, because it had come to them along with the gospel. Outside Paul's letters, the only place it appears in the New Testament is the garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus "fell on the ground," and He prayed, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee," in the darkest hour of His life.

That tells you what the word is for. It belongs to frightened hours as much as good days, because Jesus used it when He was in deep distress. And it is the same word the Holy Spirit has put in you.

So today, pray without clearing your throat. Do not start with a report on how you did, and do not bargain. Begin with that one word, and then say the true thing right after it: "Father, I am frightened," or "Father, I am ashamed." That is not disrespect. It is the very cry He gave you, because through His Spirit He has made you His own child.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 361 is Aaron and Hur (Exodus 17:12).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna