In case you forgot who you are...

For those who have been raised in church their entire lives, like me, I have often heard many different sayings and phrases that preachers use repeatedly in sermons. And sometimes, I become almost desensitized to these phrases. (And when you read this, I know that there is a phrase that sticks out in your mind). These phrases are often unexplained when I hear them in sermons and I feel as if many people just assume that everyone knows what they mean.

And for me, one of these phrases is the phrase, “child of God.” Don’t get me wrong, I know what it means. But I have heard this saying so much in my lifetime that it has almost lost its meaning. I’ve heard many, many preachers say, “If you’re saved, you are a child of God.” And they’ve explained that it means that I have been adopted into the family of God by grace through faith because of Jesus’ death on the cross. God is my Heavenly Father, and I am His daughter. But what all does it mean to be a child of God? What is the extent of what it means to be His child?

The other day, I was talking with someone about how it had been a struggle for me to walk through this season of life. I had just graduated college last year, moved back home, started a new job, my sister left for college, among so many other things. It’s been difficult to start a new chapter of life, especially because I was doing it without my close friends and community next to me.

I was completely pouring my heart out to this person about how discouraged and hopeless I felt, and after this person intently listened while I rambled on about my struggles, he looked at me and said, “Kate, do not lose hope. You are still a child of God.” And like I said earlier, I had heard that phrase so much in my life that I was becoming desensitized to it, but when he said that to me, that phrase completely hit my soul. 

I am a child of God.

Galatians 3:26 says, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.”

2 Corinthians 6:18 says, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

I forgot who I was because I was drowning in my discouragement, fear, and anxiety. But God used His divine intervention to remind me of the freedom and comfort that I have complete access to because He is my Father.

A quote I love says this: “Freedom is not the absence of something, but the presence of someone.”

You know how when you were a kid and you were really afraid of the dark and couldn’t sleep so you asked Mom and Dad to come and sleep with you? You ended up sleeping so much better because they were in the same room as you that night. And if a nightmare came, it was okay because Mom and Dad were there to protect you and make everything okay after that. You didn’t have to be brave when your parents were around because they were fighting for you. You were able to let go of your worries and simply rest.

In Galatians 4:6, the Bible calls God, “Abba,” – which means “Father.” If you are saved, you are also a child of God – you are adopted into His family.

Psalm 68:5-6 says, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”

We can cry out to God the same exact way a little kid cries out to his parents when he’s afraid of the dark. He is constantly fighting for you. And what’s even more comforting is that He hears you when you talk to Him about these struggles. Psalm 4:8 says, “… the Lord hears when I call to him.”

I encourage you to read Psalm 18. David describes how passionate and loving God is and that He gets angered by our captivity and will do anything to set us free.

No matter what you’re going through, you will always have access to the freedom and security that Jesus offers us. We don’t have to wait around for something “good” to happen to us that make the bad situations better. We have the freedom to cry out to Abba when we’re waiting in the doctor’s office for results, or when we’re taking our final exam, or when we’re walking through an extremely difficult season of life. :’)

In the presence of God, we find freedom from our fear. We all think to ourselves, “If I can just get through this, then I’ll be okay,” or “If I get this specific thing, then I’ll stop worrying.” But in Galatians 4, Paul reminds us that we don’t have to wait for that thing to happen or that trial to be over. We are children of God and in His presence, we are FREE.