Christian, are you living your life as a worried, insecure spiritual orphan, or as a joyful son/daughter?
Of the many questions Paul asks in his letter to the Galatians, one that is quite significant but often overlooked is: 'Whatever happened to all your joy?' (4.15, NIV).
I can relate to that personally. At the time of my conversion, I was brought to a deep conviction of sin while reading Ephesians 1. My insistence on autonomy and self-sufficiency crashed head on into the sovereignty of God. As I recoiled at the thought of God 'sovereignly' dispensing his grace solely as he willed, without consideration of human merit or co-operation, it crossed my mind: 'Just who does he think he is?' Slowly it dawned on me that he is God, and that I had been thinking and acting as though I were God. The pride and arrogance of it was overwhelming. A deep conviction of my sinfulness came over me; but as I was cut to the quick, I was also overcome with incredible joy at the realisation that God in his grace had predestined a sinner such as myself to be adopted as his son through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1.5).
