Covenant Church

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1. The Orphan Comes Home

The spiritual orphan mindset is characterized by self-reliance, a focus on outward performance, and a deep sense of aloneness. People with this mindset:
(1) Rely on willpower and moral effort;
(2) Define faith as trying harder to be better;
(3) Judge themselves and others based on visible success or failure; …
(4) Develop coping strategies like blame-shifting and defensiveness…
(5) Feel trapped by circumstances and misunderstood by others;
This mindset leads to a cycle of striving, disappointment, and isolation, as individuals attempt to earn love and acceptance through their own efforts rather than receiving it freely from God.

v. 10 – “bringing many sons to glory”
v. 11 – “who makes men holy”
v. 14 – “flesh and blood”
v. 16 – “made like his brothers in every way”

Adoption, by its very nature, is an act of free kindness to the person adopted. If you become a father by adopting a son or daughter, you do so because you choose to, not because you are bound to. Similarly, God adopts because he chooses to. He had no duty to do so. He need not have done anything about our sins except punish us as we deserved. But he loved us; so he redeemed us, forgave us, took us as his sons and daughters and gave himself to us as our Father.
J.I. Packer
“Knowing God”

2. Like Father, Like Child

3. The Father’s Intimate Love

This is the gospel, the welcoming heart of God. God…cheers when we come to him with our wobbling, unsteady prayers. Jesus does not say, ‘Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.’ No, Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, ‘Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy…. Don’t try to get the prayer right; just tell God where you are and what’s on your mind. That’s what little children do. They come as they are, runny noses and all…. Your heart could be, and often is, askew. That’s okay. You have to begin with what is real. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous. He came for sinners. All of us qualify. The very things we try to get rid of—our weariness, our distractedness, our messiness—are what get us in the front door! That’s how the gospel works. That’s how prayer works.
Paul Miller
“A Praying Life”