“But I said: ‘ How can I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a beautiful heritage of the hosts of nations?’ And I said: ‘ You shall call Me, “My Father,” and not turn away from Me’” (Jeremiah 3:19).

As an adopted child, I can understand what a glorious blessing it is to have a righteous man, who was not my father, take me into his home and give me the privilege of calling him, “Father.” This wonderful man loved me as his own and caused me to see his love for me through the sacrifices he made to “grow me up.”

In Romans 8:15, God says this about His children: “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” We have been adopted by God to become His children. He sacrificed His only Son for this adoption, to make us His own and to give us an inheritance. “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we (Jews) might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye (Gentiles) are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:4–6).

The Jews called Abraham their father, but Jesus said they were not the children of Abraham. Why? “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham… ye do the deeds of your father.” (John 8:39, 41) The Jews understood that Jesus was accusing them of having a father other than God, “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” What they did not understand was that their works showed they were children of another father—the devil (verse 44). Whose works are we doing? Our own, or the works of the One we call, “Father”?

“But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” (Isa. 64:8) As God our Father works to “grow us up” – to purge us from iniquity and mould us into a “vessel of honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use,” we become “prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21). When we are doing the good works of the Master, and not turning away from Him, then we are truly the sons of God and can call Him, “My Father.”

1. How would those who call God “my Father” not be walking? (Jer. 3:17)

2. These same people would say, “Behold we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.” What would the Father heal in these people? (Jer. 3:21-22)

3. What had caused these people to be covered in shame? (Jer. 3:25)

4. Who are the sons of God? (Rom. 8:14)

5. Being led by or walking after the spirit is contrasted with what? (Rom. 8:1)

6. If we walk after the spirit, what are we “thinking about” or “minding”? (Rom. 8:5)

7. What is it to be spiritually minded? (Rom. 8:6)

8. Why is the spirit life? (Rom. 8:10)

9. 2 Timothy 2:19 says, “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” If we are going to name the name of Christ, what must we do? (2 Tim. 2:19)

10. What are some of the things we do to become vessels of honor? (2 Tim. 2:22)

–Cindy Johnson