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August 30 Daily Devotional

A First Book of Daily Readings

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)

Our Father ...

(speak those words several times—slowly, reverently, with silences in between)

The presence of the Holy Spirit in us reminds us of our relationship to God. This is a wonderful thing [Romans 8:15].... The presence of the Holy Spirit within us reminds us of our sonship, yes, our adult sonship. We are not infants

We are sons in the fullest sense and in the possession of ah our faculties. The clear realization of this gets rid of the spirit of bondage again to fear. It does not do away with ‘reverence and godly fear’, but it does away with the fear that the spirit of bondage brings....

... it enables us to see that our object in living the Christian life is not simply to attain a certain standard, but is rather to please God because He is our Father—‘the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father’. The slave was not allowed to say ‘Abba’ and that slave spirit does not regard God as Father. He has not realized that He is Father, he regards Him still as a Judge who condemns. But that is wrong. As Christian people we must learn to appropriate by faith the fact that God is our Father. Christ taught us to pray ‘Our Father’. This eternal everlasting God has become our Father and the moment we realize that, everything tends to change. He is our Father and He is always caring for us, He loves us with an everlasting love, He so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son into the world and to the Cross to die for our sins. That is our relationship to God and the moment we realize it, it transforms everything. Henceforth my desire is not to keep the law but to please my Father. We know something about that by nature. Filial love, filial reverence, filial fear is so different from that old servile fear.... Our Christian living is not a matter of rules and regulations any longer, but rather our desire to show Him our gratitude for ah He has ever done for us.

Spiritual Depression, p. 172

 

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