Our three-year-old grandson Fowler recently was taken to the toy store by his “Grams” as an encouragement for his memory work. She let him pick out his choice which was a remote-controlled speed boat.

I assembled it and got the batteries in the right places and surprisingly it worked. That is, the propellers turned when the remote switch was on. But Fowler wanted it to run across the living room floor. I heard myself telling him, “it was designed for water. It only works when it is in water.” It is what fathers and grandfathers tell their immature children.

Designed to Be With Him

God the Father has been saying that to his human creatures for a long time. We were designed to live in his presence. Life only works when lived there. God’s first children, Adam and Eve started there. They enjoyed walking, talking, and working in the presence of God their creator and Father.

Later in the biblical story God’s Son Jesus lived so conscious of his Father’s presence that he claimed that he only spoke what he heard the Father say, and only did what he saw the Father do.

In the interval between Adam and Jesus, humans lived with a sense of being on the outside of the family and distant from God. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden where they were designed to live. The whole race of humans followed that model. The most popular perspective of those who believed in God was that of a distant deity who was more of a moral policeman than a loving Father. Israel continued to hold that perspective even after God graciously delivered them from slavery and called them his son.

It’s Your Inheritance 

Then Jesus came. He lived as a son — as humans were designed to live. He died as a substitute for the outsiders. Those who trust him as their own deliverer are brought inside the family and declared sons of the Father. They are given the same access to the Father as Jesus has always enjoyed. They live conscious of his presence.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord who gives us his status with the Father.

Yes, they must deal with the spiritual enemy who is the master illusionist of separation. He uses every possible circumstance to insinuate that we are separated from God the Father. He tries to get us to believe that our privilege is based on our performance rather than a gracious gift of the Son who guarantees our status as sons.

But nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord who gives us his status with the Father. (Romans 8:35-39) He has even given us the Holy Spirit to quicken our hearts to know the Father intimately. (Galatians 4:4-7) We can now live according to our original design — conscious of the Father’s presence.

Enjoy his presence. It is your inheritance as a son or daughter.