Walking in the Spirit of Adoption

By Sloan Milliken

When my brothers and I were young, most Saturday mornings my dad would take us to go “pump up” at the athletic club on the top floor of the skyscraper where he worked. It was the highlight of our week. He would keep an eye on us as he exercised, probably laughing as we would wander around and create our own workouts on the machines and with the barbells. Eventually he would let us scamper off to play on the racquetball court, and after he had finished his workout, he would round us up to take dip in the hot tub before bathing and going home.

At that age, we didn’t go with our dad to the gym because we had a deep desire to exercise. We went because he loved us and we loved him. Because of this love, we wanted to be with him, we wanted to live what he lived, and we wanted to be like him.

I want to be motivated in my walk with God for the same reasons. Far too often, though, I have lived for reasons less than love, relating to Father God more like a scared street kid and not the son that I am. I think that’s easy to do. Otherwise Paul would not have reminded the Roman believers that fear had no place in their lives, for they had “received the Spirit of adoption, by whom [they cried], ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15).

We are Father God’s children, adopted through Christ, born again by his Spirit. Walking in the Spirit of adoption—living as the sons and daughters we truly are—is about the extravagance of relationship with Dad, not the ritual of religion. It’s about freedom instead of condemnation and shame. It’s about sharing love together, not slaving in works to earn it. It’s about breaking out of fear as we ask him to pick us up and hold us in his strong arms so he can whisper his heart to us.

It has been a great joy to explore this topic in my first issue as the English editor for KRC. I hope and trust that Father God will use the stories and insights shared on these pages to inspire you to live in his love like never before. For we have a good God, and he is a good Daddy.

Sloan Milliken