“In Christ we find an incredible invitation: we are invited to live, not as abandoned orphans seeking love through perfect performance, but as adopted sons and daughters with a holy heritage — loved and chosen, just as we are.”- Esther Fleece Allen
“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.”- Psalm 68:5-6 (NLT)
As Esther Fleece Allen moves on in Chapter 3 of Your New Name, she presents the second and third looks at who God says we are.
2. You are named ‘Adopted Child’. It’s God’s pleasure and will to adopt you. As a result, you join God’s family because He chose you. In addition, Esther stresses, when you understand this, you then look to adopt others into His love. Because your adoption means a great deal to you. Esther continues:
“No one on earth is too far gone, too forsaken, or too old to be adopted by God. God is in the adoption business, and it is His will to increase His family by way of adoption. And God doesn’t adopt us for surface reasons. . . . He adopts us out of who He is — constantly loving and pursuing.”
3. You are named ‘Chosen’. Certainly, not all of us experience the feeling of people choosing us here on earth. Yet, God chose us. Furthermore, in the Bible, God chooses the least of these, the overlooked. For example, God told the prophet Hosea to marry Gomer, a prostitute.
Hosea, whose name means salvation, spoke of God’s true characteristics. Above all, through his marriage to Gomer, Hosea gave us an object lesson. That God pursues us, even in our sin. And God makes your new name Chosen, even when you believe you’ve made a mess of things. Esther concludes:
“Old labels can lie to us about themselves and about other people, and labels can set up lies about God and who He is toward us. . . . I want us to become confident that even if we’re left out on earth, we will not be left out in the kingdom of God.”
Today’s question: How do you respond to the fact that in Christ we find an incredible invitation? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “New robes of righteousness”
