7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and if you are his child, then you are also an heir through God. now you are God’s people. Once you hadn’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Reflection
In one short verse we go from being a slave to being children to ultimately being an heir. It doesn’t get any better than that. Well, maybe a little better. Because we are children of God, He sent us the Holy Spirit into our hearts.
Let’s talk about children. We all were one, once. I used to joke and say, “You can be young only once, but you can be immature forever. My first wife hated it when I said that. I’m pretty sure I don’t say that to Debra, as we get ready to celebrate our second anniversary on June 18.
I can’t fathom being an heir. But from what I’ve read in the Bible it will be so cool. So, on to childhood. The point I’d like to make is that we need to be children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus told us how important it was to be children in Matthew 18:3, when he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Can you picture Jesus saying this to his disciples. They asked Jesus who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. He called a child over. I imagine that the disciples and Jesus were sitting so they had to look up to the child. What a great way to make his point.
But make no mistake, Jesus isn’t telling us to be childish. He’s telling us to be childlike. There are attributes of our childhood that we need to retain throughout our lives – like humility. I’m not sure at what stage in our lives we become prideful but isn’t that the point we began having major problems.
Imagine a church where there is no pride or arrogance. God tells us in Proverbs 8:13: “To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.”
God hates pride. Think of all the bad things that come with pride, all the problems.
We didn’t have to worry what others were thinking about us. We didn’t have to worry about looking “good.” Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”
All spin offs of pride.
Do you remember a simpler time when it wasn’t all about “me?”
Yes, we are heirs. But we need to be childlike first. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
by Rick Reed
For Pondering and Prayer
Imagine being a slave. But we are no longer slaves. Instead, we are God’s children. And with that we receive the Holy Spirit. But even better, we are heirs of God’s and may enter the kingdom of God. Let’s live like it every moment of the day.
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to remember whose I am and what I am, your child and an heir to heaven. There’s no test, nothing to tell me I’m not good enough. I am an heir because of you. He made me to live like that every second of every day. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.