We are not Uninformed, Underprivileged Acquaintances; We are Sons!

It is a great encouragement to me that I have been called a son; a title - more rightly called an identity - which implies trust, confidence, and responsibility.  The knowledge of this simple fact (simple in that it is simply true) and its perpetual work of shaping and molding my life, imparts great confidence and joy.  Yet there is something remarkably wonderful about this sonship into which I have entered that, many times, I find myself guilty of neglecting.  That is, we are sons, "..according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace..."  Yes, this is what gives me the greatest joy of all: my functioning as a son, my living it out both in the commonplace and the extraordinary, gives HIM glory, and testifies to the riches and power of HIS grace.

When I operate in my identity, it brings a big, big smile to His face; and suddenly a laugh erupts from inside Him, a deep belly-laugh, and resonates throughout heaven; and pretty soon He just can't help Himself and He's dancing in circles, jumping up and down, and shouting, "That's him!  That's my son, Thomas!  Wow do I love him!

And we are not passive sons, living in the shadow of our Father.  No, He caused the riches of His grace to abound toward us in ALL wisdom and prudence.  He made known to us the mystery of His will; and it was His good pleasure to do those things.

Of course it is all about Him: everything is to His praise and glory; but my point is that He has given US (not "United States" by the way :) the keys to the Kingdom!  He has made US stewards of mysteries!  We have been given responsibility!

In this knowledge, I will not doubt or fear.  I won't let insecurities rule me in any fashion.  But by that into which I have been called, through His wonderful grace, I slip out of the bondage...and into a new, white garment; I step out of the darkness...and into the light: the glorious riches in Christ.