Grace is something you cannot find in a worldly kingdom, but it is the law of the kingdom of God. The reason is because God is our Heavenly Father, a true father has grace and love when it evolves around their children. It is a responsibility that our God has not abandoned. You can either have the spirit of bondage to fear, or you can be free in the spirit of adoption, whereby God is your Heavenly Father. You have been predestined for spiritual adoption, but you must be willing to accept the call. Ephesians 1:3-6 says, “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Many people correlate their heavenly Father with their earthly father, and although they should reflect the same, they very rarely do. Many children grow up in fatherless homes, which could be possibly why preschoolers are the fastest growing consumers of antidepressants. Therefore, they look at God as someone who is never there. Some grow up in an abusive home, which results in them looking at God as an angry tyrant, sitting on His throne and waiting to cast them down the moment that they slip up and make a mistake. Some have parents who are always busy with work and never spend any time with them, which causes them to view God as someone who is always to busy to hear and answer their prayers or speak back to them. If that is your earthly dad, then let me introduce you to a real Father, who is love! Our God is never too busy for you, neither is He gone on a journey somewhere. He is not abusive, but He nurtures and picks you up when you fall. He listens when you call upon Him! He may discipline, but He does it out of His love. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” God will never abuse you out of His anger because you made a mistake. He will discipline you so that you can learn from your mistakes, allowing you to learn from them so that you can avoid repeating those mistakes in the future! He instructs you in the way you should go, giving you fatherly advice when you need it most. He does it out of love, for He is love! It is up to you follow His direction that He gives.

In Romans 8:14, 15, the word that is used to describe father is “Abba.” The word, “Abba”, conveys a close, personal relationship, and it is equivalent to the english word, “Daddy.” God is truly a Father, one who loves and cares about you, and forgives you when you make your worst mistake, for He is a God of second chances. He loves you so much that it is indescribable, even to the place He seeks to give you the best He can. He focuses more about the well being of His children than He does Himself. You are a king’s kid, and you have a Father who is able and willing to do anything for you! He is just waiting for you to ask so you can receive!

Our heavenly Father wants to smile upon us and be proud of us, and we can do so by spending time in His presence. In many homes today, children have no relationship built with their parents. They are so lazy, always consumed by their technology that they will never do anything but eat, sleep and play with their computers, cell phones or video games. They are not respectful, but they just want to use and manipulate their parents into buying them new things. Spiritually, we are to not be too busy for our God. Instead, we should make time to create everlasting memories with our God.

Do you have any family pictures or portraits in your home? I remember one of our family portraits from when I was a kid with my dad, mom, and my brother. It was a picture of us when we were at Dollywood, and the theme was a Western setting. We each had our cowboy/cowgirl outfit on, and not one of us were smiling. We each had our serious faces on. It was quite funny looking back on it now. However, that was our family portrait. Now, from a spiritual perspective what memories do you have with God and your brothers and sisters in the LORD? Do you have any family portraits hanging up in your mind? As God’s children, He should be proud of us due to our obedience and faithfulness to Him and the calling upon our lives. In John 3:1-8, when Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and a Pharisees, came to Jesus by night in secret, because the rest of the Pharisees did not believe in Him while Nicodemus knew it had to be God to work the miracles that He did, Jesus told him, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (3:3). Nicodemus was confused because he knew a grown man could never go back and enter into his mom’s womb, but Jesus was talking about a spiritual birth, one in which an individual is born of water and of Spirit. He is speaking of a spiritual baptism, where an individual dies to their sinful, carnal nature in repentance and becomes exactly what God has called us to be. When someone is born again, they become a new creation that reflects the image of God. 1 John 5:1, 18 says, “1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him…18We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” When someone has been adopted into the Kingdom of God, they start to pick up traits that are similar to God, taking upon themselves a new name, and they refuse to sin because they have been begotten by the Word of God. They read and study this Word until they become that Word, a walking, talking Bible. Just as 2 Corinthians 3:2 says, they become an open letter of scripture, known and read of all men. As children of God, we must love God and love our brothers and sisters, and then keep ourselves from evil. That can only come through spending more time in God’s presence and in communication with Him! That lifestyle should create memorials with our God. We should be able to step into our prayer closet and remember when God spoke a specific Word over our lives. We should recall some of the greatest supernatural occurrences in our lives because they are God-moments, and it should be a picture in our minds that we never forget!