Cherished: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

                       Cherished

                        Not taken into slavery

                        as a chained laborer

                        even in a spacious household

                        but adopted

                        as a family.

                        Chosen love

beyond

                        formal legalities.

                        A relationship

                        cherished

as an infant

                        clings to daddy

                        in full trust.

Reflection: Chosen: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     In what ways do you feel your birth family has abandoned you or forgotten you?

2.     Do you expect the same attention from God?

3.     In what ways have you been “adopted” by friends or a church family?

4.     Does the experience of chosen love change your heart’s sense of belonging? How?

Share: What is one word you’d like to be able to give to another in your situation?

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Chosen: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Romans 8: 15

“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry “Abba Father!”

To adopt is a choice. It is a chosen love filled with mercy and compassion and joy. And responsibility.

Sometimes it seems foreign to our own hearts and we struggle to understand the choice and commitment and recognize that we are the recipients of this grace—this mercy that in the Lord’s hands is never undone.

His adoption of each of us goes far beyond the legalities and formalities. He chooses the intimate word Abba—Daddy to express how deeply committed He is to His children.  Involved—Interested—Invested—Immanuel. God with us.

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” 1 John 4:13

Once His we are never abandoned by Him. Even when we run away.

Thank you Lord for Your steadfast love for us in all circumstances. Please remove our fears in our failures that put up barriers and emotionally pull us away. Help us to keep our hearts abiding in You as You abide in us.

Psalm of Worship: Proverbs 8:14

“I have good advice and sound wisdom; I have insight, I have strength.”