Are you a Servant or a Son?

How do you view your relationship with God?  Do you approach Him as a Servant or as a Son?  Many believers struggle in how they relate to God and they get caught up in performance mode in serving God trying to earn favour with Him.  But God is not after your service…

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Matt 20:28

God isn’t after slaves or after someone’s service instead He is after companionship, relationship and intimacy.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Gal 4:6-7

You are not a slave but a son! God is our Abba Father. Abba is another word for father but is in closer relationship with the word “daddy”.  When you come to God in prayer do you approach Him as “Dear God in Heaven…..” or “Daddy, Father?”

Rom 8:15-17 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,

There is a difference between servant and son. As a son you have a position in God’s family. A servant or slave in a household doesn’t receive an inheritance BUT a son does! We DO NOT have to work or earn to receive Salvation or anything else that Jesus redeemed us from because all of this has ALREADY been provided!

Many of us fall short of the goal because we are trying to work for it - or - the opposite, if we feel we are unworthy (not good enough) to receive.  But God doesn’t show favouritism!  We don’t have to strive!  Salvation (along with everything else that Jesus purchased for us) is a free gift from God. This means that we don’t have to work to earn favour with God or to see the answer to our prayers.  Instead we need to discover what God has already provided for us in His Word and as Paul said….

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Phil 4:9 (NIV)