Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone
This week I had the honor of being a guest on Christine Hoover’s By Faith podcast. She’s finishing a fabulous season on friendship, and I hope you’ll go check out all her episodes! We had a great chat about God’s faithfulness to me in the midst of cancer and how we can support friends who are suffering. I hope you’ll go check it out!
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I hate to wait. As someone who hates to wait at red lights, you can imagine the distress I felt last month when I learned that to renew my husband’s car registration, one of us would need to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles in person and visit not just one but THREE separate departments in the building. And as the one who doesn’t have a full-time job, this lovely responsibility fell to me.
We groan when we hear that we need to visit the DMV, don’t we? Because we know we will have to wait. We expect to wait at the DMV, doctor’s offices, and the car line at school. But these are all minor inconveniences compared to the big waits in life. Maybe you’re waiting for healing, for reconciliation in a relationship, or for a prodigal child to return. Maybe you don’t know which way to go, and you’re waiting for direction.
While I knew I’d eventually leave the DMV with a little sticker for my husband’s license plate, we often don’t know when or how our waiting will end. What we do know is the One we are waiting for.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14)
We can be strong and have courage as we wait, because we know the Lord is with us. Our hope isn’t in a particular outcome; our hope is in Him. His presence gives us peace as we wait.
“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” (Psalm 39:7)
And as we wait, we can have peace because of the promises of God’s Word. The truth of His Word sustains us as we wait.
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.” (Psalm 130:5)
Waiting is hard, friends. But we are not left alone. We are waiting for the Lord, who gives us hope through the promises of His Word.
No matter what you face this week, let your heart take courage as you wait for the Lord.
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One night before bedtime, my daughter was stalling in one of my favorite ways—by showering me with compliments from head to toe. As she moved from my hair to my clothes, she mentioned my wedding ring with the “fake diamond in it.” I laughed and corrected her, “No, Sweetheart, that’s actually a real diamond.” Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “Mom!” she exclaimed. “You’re rich! You should take that to someone to sell it and buy me an American Girl doll!”
Sometimes I feel the same way when I see the riches of God in display in His Word. The riches of the Father’s mercy (Ephesians 2:4). The riches left by the Son when He took on flesh (2 Corinthians 8:9). The Holy Spirit richly poured out through salvation in Christ (Titus 3:5-6).
My jaw drops and my eyes widen when I think that the One who has everything would choose to make me His child and provide me with an eternal inheritance. My Savior sacrificed it all to redeem me and purchased my salvation with His blood.
Last week we saw in Galatians 4:4-6 that God has given us the privilege of calling Him our Father. In the next verse, Paul tells us even more about our status as children of God:
“So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:7).
Because God made us His children by His grace, we are promised an inheritance that is imperishable and kept for us in heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4). Romans 8:17 tells us that we are co-heirs with Christ, and we can only imagine what His inheritance must be like!
God’s abundant provision for us isn’t just the riches of eternal life with Him. He also gives what we need each day. In Matthew 7, we read that just as earthly parents give their children what they need, our heavenly Father will do the same for us. There’s nothing we need that He doesn’t have. He’s rich, remember? He will not withhold any good thing from us (Psalm 84:11).
No matter what you face this week, God has made you an heir to the riches of His grace.
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When my son was a toddler, we went through an awkward phase when he used the word “dada” to refer to all men. I’d watch him look around the store and spot a random stranger, and I’d brace myself for what would come next. “Dada!” would fly enthusiastically from his mouth as Mr. Random Stranger looked around in confusion.
My son didn’t yet understand that the word we use to refer to his daddy was a precious name for an even-more-precious relationship. Now that he’s a teenager, he knows that the love of his father is unique. He calls him “Dad” because of the relationship they share. And we see in Galatians 4 that God has given us, His adopted children, the unique privilege of calling Him our Father:
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:4-6)
In these verses, we see the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bringing us into this special relationship and giving us the privilege of calling God our Father. We are adopted children because God sent forth His Son to redeem us. Just a few verses earlier, Paul tells the Galatians that “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (3:26). Our adoption as sons is a free gift of God’s grace given to us on the basis of faith in Christ.
God also sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Romans 8:15 tells us that we cry “Abba, Father!” because of the Spirit of adoption given to us. Because God the Father has sent both His Son and His Spirit, we can cry out to God with confidence and know that He hears the pleas of His children.
No matter what you face this week, we have the privilege of calling God our “Abba! Father!”
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