Daily EncouragementSample

Sonship and slavery are poles apart. The slave serves out of fear because he must; the son serves out of love because he delights in pleasing his father. The son is free, a child in his father’s house; the slave is at best a bondservant in his master’s housel The son has a permanent place in the home and his future is secure because he is an heir; the slave is just a temporary resident. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of sonship, and the intimate cry, “Abba, Father” is the evidence that he is working in our hearts. The enemy is always trying to get those who are privileged to be sons to serve as slaves. Bondage, fear, a distorted view of God - these are the characteristics of the spirit with which he seeks to bewitch them and burden them again with “a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 3:1; 5:1). We need to be on our guard. “It is the death of our heavenly life to have hard thoughts of God,” said Richard Baxter long ago. And the modern preacher Thielicke, writing about the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son remarks, “What a wretched thing it is to call oneself a Christian and yet be a stranger and a grumbling servant in the Father’s house.”