Unchained Melodye

I have often said that I like to use the expression: I conclude . . .  for now. While I have reached certain conclusions, some of them are still in the making. So while I may conclude, it could change. 🙂 But then there are others things in my life that are concluded with certainty. They are settled.
For instance, I have concluded that “my sins have been forgiven because of His name and that I am God’s child – now and forever – because everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been Fathered by God… and God protects (keeps) the ones He has Fathered. I know this because God’s Spirit resides in me – the Spirit He has given me. And His commands do not weigh me down, but because He is my Father I am a conqueror. God has given me eternal life, for the one who has the Son has eternal life.”

Yes, this I KNOW. God loves me. I am His forever child. In reading the book “Because He Loves Me” I was amazed at how perfectly the present chapter will help me “conclude” my posts about our fostering journey. Elyse Fitzpatrick says: As of September 2005 there were approximately 500,000 children in foster care in the US. The majority of these children are born to parents who don’t want them or are unable to care for them. They are shuffled around, wondering who they are, will they be loved, and will they ever belong. It is a very sad way to live a childhood. The foster care situation is troubling. But there’s an even more tragic reality: many of us live as spiritual foster children. We give tacit assent to our adoption into God’s family, but we struggle to believe that His commitment to be our Father isn’t dependent in any way on our daily performance. Foster children come to believe that their position in the family is so tenuous that their day-to-day failures may eventually result in abandonment. It is essential that we cease living like foster children. Living in slavish fear of abandonment will breed over-scrupulous introspection and a works righteousness. Christian obedience has to be motivated by love for God in response to His great grace or it is destined to fail. And it can only be motivated by love when we know that the relationship is eternally secure.”

I do not know what our little buddy thinks at this point. I am thankful that he will one day soon have a permanent family (it appears) and will not be shuffled around the foster care system for the rest of his life. It is good to know he will be adopted and I hope that he will be very loved. But as I think of this precious little boy, my prayer is that there will be even more than that for him. More than just a home and family here. I pray for him to experience the love of a permanent Father that will last forever. I pray that he will recognize his need to be adopted as a son of my Abba – the Father of lights with whom there is not the slightest hint of change! I pray that he will come to know, really know, that God loves him and wants to be his forever Father and have a lasting relationship with him.

Yes, I know the One in whom my faith is set, and I am convinced that He is able to protect what has been entrusted to me until that day.
And, Buddy, more than anything I wish you this also. Oh, that you would know Jesus . . . because there is no greater thing.