Have you Reclaimed What Has Been Stolen?
“But to all who believed him [Jesus] and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12
Long, long ago there was a theft of drastic proportions. Something of great worth was stolen. One day Eve, the first created daughter of God, was strolling through the garden without any feelings of being defective, unacceptable, or fundamentally damaged as a woman. She had no shame. Yet, that was about to change.
“Hey, Eve,” cried Satan.
She looks around and sees a serpent. “Eat this Eve.”
“No, not that. Any fruit, but that one. God said we would die,” explains Eve.
“But he didn’t really mean it, it won’t kill you. You will just be like him knowing good and evil,” tempts Satan.
Hmm, that sounds good, she thinks. Crunch.
“Hey, Adam! Here Adam – eat this,” calls Eve. Crunch.
They listen.
Adam and Eve heard him coming. God was strolling through the garden like usual. They saw their nakedness and they felt… shame.
It was time to hide. So they hid.
(This was an adaptation of Genesis 3, where Eve and Adam eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.)
The instant Eve’s teeth sank into the forbidden fruit – sin, separation, and shame entered in. Like oil and water, God, who is sinless and holy, cannot mix with a sinful people. So our relationship as a daughter has been severed. We have been evicted from his house.
Our identity, our family name was stolen and the benefits of being God’s child shattered. From that moment on, through lies, dysfunction, and darkness, Satan has been playing the role of a thief; “a thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy” (Jn. 10:10).
But God.
Because of his great love for us, he had a rescue and restoration plan. He sent his son Jesus Christ, a sinless God-man, to die on the cross for our sin so we may not remain separated, but would have a way back to the family. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to be adopted into God’s family. Adoption allows us to enter into the rights, responsibilities, and affiliation of being a daughter of God. A daughter of the Divine. It enacts a permanent change in our status.
“In the Bible, adoption is one of several family-related terms used to describe the process of salvation and its subsequent benefits. God is a father who graciously adopts believers in Christ into his spiritual family and grants them all the privileges of heir-ship. Salvation is much more than forgiveness of sins and deliverance from condemnation; it is also a position of great blessing. Believers are children of God” (Brown, William E. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology.)
Our relationship with the Father can be rescued. And by following his leadership as King, our lives can be restored. We can become a child of God once again. We can become his daughters. Like with all adoptions, there is a process. Our spiritual adoption into the family of God looks something like this:
“But to all who believed him [Jesus] and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12). When we accept him with our words and in our will, we receive the forgiveness of our sin. As we choose to respond to our Father as the leader of our lives, we are given the right to be grafted into the family of God. We then become his adopted daughters.
The challenge is that once we do, we often struggle to see ourselves as such. We fail to let the lens of his truth define who we are.
We feel all alone. We can’t seem to find a place to belong.
We might know God loves us but we struggle to feel it.
We wrestle with ourselves and how we were made. Never finding acceptance.
We see our failures instead of our successes. Never realizing we have an advocate. We are depleted by defeat. Believing we are stuck in our situations.
We grapple with our purpose. Desiring to see our worth.
But it is time. It is time to let God rescue us and restore our value once and for all. It is time to take hold of our identity as God’s daughters. It is time to restore our value through the lens of God’s view. Daughters is designed to take back what Satan stole so we may know and experience who we are in him.
I have always thought the culture of adoption amongst families at our church was unique. Until it was cemented in my heart that adoption is the currency of God. It’s how he is building his family.
Let’s take this journey together and never look back again. “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are” (1 Jn. 3:1a).
Dad, we come to you like a child runs to her father. Grateful to be the apple of your eye. Secure knowing we are welcomed into your arms as we are. Cement in our minds your truth that from eternity to eternity you are God and that we are your adopted daughters. No one can snatch us out of your hand, no one can undo what you have done (Isa. 43:13). Love, Your Daughters
Visit ErinNicoleThompson.com for the Daughters Series videos and workbook.