Off the Sidewalk (part 1)

You’re walking down the street. You can see your breath. A few paces ahead, through a curtain of falling snow, there emerges the image of a father walking alongside his son. The father reaches down, picks up his son, embraces him, hugs him, whispers “I love you.”

You wonder, “When is the son more a son? On the sidewalk? Or in the father’s arms?” You replay the image in your head. Over and over. There’s been no change in status. In both cases the son is still the son, the father still the father. But there has been a change in the experience of the status. The son is loved by the father when he’s on the sidewalk, but the son experiences the love of the father when he’s lifted off the sidewalk and brought into his daddy’s arms.

Change the scene. You’re the child, God’s the father. Do you feel like you’re on the sidewalk? Do you know your status (as a loved child of God), but wish you could experience your status? Do you wish God would lift you off the sidewalk and bring you into his arms?

 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."   -Romans 8:15

(Part 1 of 6 in our series "Off the Sidewalk." Adapted from Tim Keller's sermon "Praying in the Spirit.")