No Longer an Orphan

"God is good, and we are thankful"--the main theme from the pastor's talk on Sunday.

Funny enough, as an abstract thought processor, out of all the main points that could have spoken to my heart and cut it into thousands of tiny pieces that wasn't it. The sentence that cut me to the quick and changed the viewpoint from which I've been interpreting my world through was a sub-point. A mere addendum to further explain the goodness of God the Father and the overwhelming sense of thankfulness that we His children have in response. (Notice I didn't say 'should have', because 'should' removes the entire point of grace---unrelated point.)

"We are no longer orphans needing to come begging before a King for whatever scraps we might find. Through Christ we've been given the same inheritance as the Son of God. We crawl to the table begging the Father for a crumb, just a crumb, and He looks on us with compassion and says 'My child why don't you sit in the place I've set for you?"---Undisclosed Pastor.

I've been spending the better part of my Christian journey begging God for scraps. I haven't owned the truth of how He sees me. I've been spending so much time seeing myself through events, choices, history and deficits that God no longer takes into account. I see all my flaws and short comings and who I wish to be and think "I don't deserve this". I've had many well meaning fellow brothers and sisters in Christ say "well, we don't deserve it, that's why it's grace" but I feel like that just allows us to live in the lie of being less-than. God SAYS we deserve it because of Christ, He SAYS our identity is now in Christ, and therefore WE DESERVE whatever we ask for according to God's will.

He delights to give us good gifts. What's the key? Thankfulness. Only by being truly thankful for what we DO have can we see God's goodness in such a way that it changes our view and motivates us to ask for things that He delights to give us. The Father doesn't give His children everything we ask for, then we'd be ungrateful spoiled brats!! But He does give us promises like 'Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you'  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A25-34&version=NIV  --some of these things? This thing and that thing? No! ALL these things!!! The Gospels outline what things those are, the things that matter most. Belonging, peace, love, joy, security, forgiveness, eternal life...

The early church got it. In the book of Acts, we see a body of believers who take care of one another's every need  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2%3A42-45&version=NIV . They are secure in the knowledge of who God is and who they are in light of that. They are thankful for all He provides, they know that He will continue to do so, and because of that they freely give to those who do not have the same blessings. My inheritance is the same as theirs. All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Jesus the Son who in turn gave it to us. Which means that our resources are boundless if only we stop living under the burden of our old orphaned identity. Which coat will you wear--rags or royal robes?