Today I have felt so loved by God, as his son. This wasn’t something I grew up with before my conversion, but it has come in my relationship with God. I could feel the reality of the Spirit of God’s Son crying out and causing me to cry out, “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6).

One might think that since God has so many children now, it is not special to be his child. But that is not at all the case. This is the Spirit of God’s Son, Jesus Christ (Rom 8:3, 9, 11; Gal 4:4-6), and we are beloved in the Son. He made us his children in the Beloved One, Jesus (Eph 1:5-6). Our Father loves us as He loves Jesus (John 17:23). Of course, I already know that theoretically as the fruit of my study. But it is a step beyond that to celebrate its reality in my heart.

I don’t always think about it and I don’t always feel it. But when I remember what it means in my own relationship to God, when I express it in prayer and worship to God, when the Spirit reminds me, calling within me even when I had been thinking of something else—what sublime joy that brings!