For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17

There are seasons and times in our lives when fear, uncertainty and doubts suffocate the assurance of knowing God as not only King, Savior or master, but Father. Sometimes we get squeezed into a mindset that equates him as no different from our earthly fathers. In fact, sometimes it is easy for us to see Jesus relating to the Father with this joyful confidence, but we may see ourselves as disqualified for it.

In any event, it is quite liberating to have those doubts and fears lifted and our confidence reinforced by the Spirit that He is far different from our earthly fathers (Matthew 7:10). Even more, God, through His Spirit of adoption, seeks to remind us that – we are His adopted sons and daughters and since we are in Christ – we have the privilege of relating to Him even as Jesus Christ does.

A child of God can have a relationship with God so close that they may cry out, Abba, Father! (Daddy!) Because adoption makes it possible. Daddy is a holy name, set apart for the children.

Adoption was an act frequent among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans; by which a person was taken out of one family and incorporated with another. Persons of property, who had no children of their own, adopted those of another family. The child thus adopted ceased to belong to his own family, and was in every respect bound to the person who had adopted him, as if he were his own child.

That is exactly what we are – His very own. Even though our feelings get mixed up from time to time, He never changes. Our adoption as sons and daughters is forever intact. We are brought into the family of God; and the agent that brought us into this family is the Holy Spirit; and this very Spirit continues to witness to us the grace in which we stand, by enabling us to call God our Father, with the utmost filial confidence and affection.