not everyone is called by God to adopt. And that’s fine. But we are all called, as Christians, to take care of orphans–however that looks. For me, I have an idea of what that looks like. God has called me to adopt one day. I have no idea what that looks like exactly. But I know that God has a plan and God is preparing me to be a mom to a child(ren) who is forgotten, unwanted, abandoned, unloved by their biological family. I am willing to be a mom. I so desire to be a mom and eager to show them the love that their biological mother didn’t give them. Maybe for you, it is through giving money so others can adopt. Maybe you are supposed to start an orphanage. Or maybe you’re supposed to start a ministry at your church. Who knows….it’s different for everybody. But we’re all supposed to be involved.
And I so want more of the Father’s heart, friends! By praying for more of His heart, I have been falling head over heels in love with so many different kids from so many different places. Yes, even ones that at first glance may seem difficult to love (but aren’t they just are an amazing reminder of how difficult we can be to love?). I love how He has been working this passion into my heart as well as giving me a heart for adoption. I can’t wait to share more about this particular journey in future as I pray, seek God and His plan for me and ask Him for timing in how to act on my convictions. Something I am so utterly excited and passionate about.
{Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV}
“I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.” John 14:18
I’ve seen so much poverty in the world. I’ve seen the hurt in the lives of children who are unloved and abandoned by their biological families. I’ve seen more of God’s creation and how beautiful it is. My heart breaks every time that I see someone begging for food, it breaks my heart when I see a child wearing the same clothes everyday. I’ve seen people begging for money on the streets to make a living and provide for their family. But when I see God’s children feeling unloved, uncared for, unwanted, forgotten by everyone around. That is a much greater poverty to me. A much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat or clothes to wear. I am eager to share that love with everyone that God places in my life. My love for kids just continues to grow on a daily basis while being on the race. I also love that I am learning so much about myself while I learn how to steer their hearts towards Him.
Isaiah 58 says that those who “bring to [their] house the poor who are cast out” will be blessed by God. Adoption is very close to God’s heart. In fact, adoption is an amazing picture of the Gospel. When we receive Christ, we are adopted into the family of God, and receive the amazing, unmatched privilege of being His sons and daughters for eternity. A “forever family” is the number one desire of every orphan child. There’s millions of children who cry themselves to sleep every night longing to have a family.
Adoption is a redemptive picture to tragedy that happens in this broken world. And every single day it is worth it. Because adoption is God’s heart
What a picture of us belonging to God’s family.
It is how He himself calls us Sons and Daughters, how we are children of a king.
What grace! And what a price He paid for us!
We were worth that much to Him!
I’m just overwhelmed by grace at that thought and how adoption just displays that message to me again and again, right in front of me so I can see it!
God commands us to care for orphans and widows
Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27. And that will not look the same for everyone, we all have our own stories to live for Him and our own ways to bring glory to the Father, but there are ways we can all obey this command.
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In a spiritual sense, every person who has put their faith in Jesus is adopted too. God also seems to place special emphasis on the care of orphans, to give a home to the homeless and a family to the fatherless.
It’s a vital reality of the gospel of the kingdom.
and he may be calling you to adopt.
And every single day, it is worth it. Because ADOPTION IS GOD’S HEART. He sets the lonely in families. Adoption is the reason that I can come before God’s throne and beg Him for mercy, because He predestined me to be adopted as His child through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
I want to fix what children go though everyday. But I know that I can’t do everything on my own, So I lay it at the feet of my Father and rejoice to know that if we are children, then we are heirs – of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings – in order that we may also share in His glory. And I call out to the Holy Spirit knowing that He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for us.
Adoption is beautiful. Adoption is hard. Adoption is the Gospel of Christ and the promise of God’s love and redemption lived out in our lives. But I believe that God’s heart is for the Fatherless. And that He specifically equipped His church to look out for them. I personally think government has a lot of roles but that some roles that the government has taken on would be better left to the Church. But the Church needs to stand up and take back what was given to us by God…a calling to protect the Fatherless, to look after the orphans and the widows in their distress.
I am beginning to catch glimpses of how God feels about each of us. He offers us so much, for FREE, yet we continually reject Him. He wants so badly to comfort us, to wrap us in His arms of love and grace, yet because of our brokenness, we are incapable of accepting His love and comfort. If we would just run to the arms of our Heavenly Father, who adopted us as His sons and daughters, FOREVER, all we have to do is accept Him – He wants so desperately for us to call Him “Father,” to call him “daddy” but we don’t… He keeps loving us, He gave up everything to bring us home to His Kingdom – He died for us – but we can’t seem to bring ourselves to accept His love… Everyday, He is choosing us, but we too often refuse to choose Him.
I heard the Lord speak into my heart
“I know Laura, I have children I want to adopt too.”
No longer did the pain take my breath away but the realization that God had just shared His heart with me took my breath away. As much as a human could, I understood the longing of God’s heart. Yes! He does have children He wants to adopt into His family and His longing to do so is INTENSE. So intense, He sacrificed His Son – His one and only Son in order to adopt children. Truthfully – that’s hard to wrap my mind around.
The day that God shared His heart with me became the day I realized on a much deeper level the importance and privilege I have to be a mother role model in children’s lives. To help God adopt children into His family and be used by God to grow up His children spiritually. WOW! This intense longing I have in my heart for the people God puts within my reach is from Him. He has given me a mother’s heart for them and I am so grateful! I long and ache for them, I’m willing to fight for them – I’ll do whatever it takes for them to possess what they have in Christ and to know experientially their Creator as Father.
Do you know what it does to the heart of God when we love on Him? Do you know that we touch places in the heart of the Almighty that only you and I can touch. No one else can take that place in God’s heart that is reserved for me and for you. All the children in all the world cannot fill that place. It doesn’t mean that God loves me more or you less. It just means that each and every one of us has this special place in the very heart of God. God longs for you and God longs for me. I believe God expresses His heart so beautifully in Isaiah 30:18 when He’s talking to His children. They are not just words but God’s very heart! He says he longs and waits for us. Pause and think about that! Oh, I want to bless the very heart of God today by showering Him with my love. I want to touch the places in God’s heart that only I can touch. Amazing….truly amazing.
Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him. Isaiah 30:18
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.’
{Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV}
I challenge you to do something. If you are pro-life, is it in word only, or is it in deed as well? There are certainly many ways to be pro-life, but one very basic way is to adopt. By providing a safe, loving and warm home for a child, you are providing a very courageous birthmom with the assurance that she made a good choice for her baby.
