ARE YOU FULLY HIS?

Psalms 119:94 I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.

In 2005 my wife and I are adopting a teenage foster daughter. We wanted to shower her with our love and attention, and with no regards of her already late age and different biological descent, we wanted to treat her just as we have our other children in the past. Along with being a teenager in the twenty-first century, this young girl had had to bite the raw and bitter end of a difficult life for many years, which all contributed in creating an independent, willful, untrusting and cynical person, at times difficult to work with.

One night we had a discussion about trust and privileges. I asked her how she could expect me to bless her with my trust in her, when she didn’t bless me with her trust in me and my parental guidance. We were talking about certain entertainment activities. I told her that we adopted her as a daughter, but I asked if she adopted us as parents.

How much like our relationship with the Lord at times. We indignantly accuse Him of being an unfaithful ‘parent’ when all the while our adoption is one-sided; He gives us all of His heart, has already paid a high price for our adoption, and we, in our stubborn human nature, take in the blessing of adoption praying “Our Father” and continue living in our own independent ways.

At one point she said, “You have adopted me in your heart; I am your daughter now; you care for me, and I guess I am going to have to learn to trust this new world where people care for me.” In a case of a parental relationship, the child is expected to trust parents about very personal things--these include free-time activities, friends, clothing, lifestyles, and goals. Can God expect our trust in Him for the same things, and in the same way that we expect our teenagers to trust us? Do we say to God, “I am yours and I’m going to learn to trust your judgment about every facet of my life” in the same way that we expect it of our teenagers?

Have we consecrated ourself to Him and Him only, so we can in earnest full confidence claim His protection? Next time we are desperate and we need His help, let us ask ourselves if we can sincerely and earnestly tell the Lord, “I am thine, save me?”

Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.