This Week's Devo

  You Still Have a Seat at the Table

One of my favorite things about being a mom is watching the confidence my kids have in belonging.

Not confidence in themselves necessarily—just confidence in home.

My kids do not walk into our house wondering if they are welcome there. They do not stand nervously at the pantry asking if they are allowed to eat. They do not question whether there is a place for them at the table. Even when they have had hard days, even when attitudes need adjusting or mistakes have been made, they still come through the front door like they belong there.

Because they do.

They are not guests in my home.
They are my children.

And isn’t it amazing how easily children understand belonging while we, as adults, so often struggle to believe it with God?

So many of us live like spiritual outsiders—tiptoeing around the Father instead of resting in Him. We carry this quiet fear that if we fail too many times, struggle too deeply, or fall short too often, maybe we will lose our place at the table.

But Scripture paints an entirely different picture.

The Gospel did not simply rescue us from sin. It restored us to family.

The old covenant revealed our inability to save ourselves, but Jesus fulfilled every requirement we never could. Through Him, we were not only forgiven—we were adopted. 

Galatians says that before Christ, we were held captive under the law, waiting for the promise to come. But when Jesus stepped into history, He redeemed us so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters. And because we belong to Him, God placed His Spirit within our hearts crying, “Abba! Father!” 

Abba.

It is such an intimate word. A relational word. The cry of a child who knows they are safe enough to run into their father’s arms.

Not a servant trying to earn approval.
Not a stranger hoping to be accepted.
A child who belongs.

I think sometimes we forget just how radical that invitation really is.

Because the filters we carry are loud.

The filter of shame tells us we are too broken.
The filter of insecurity whispers that we are not enough.
The filter of failure convinces us we have to earn what Jesus already secured.

And before long, we start approaching God like employees instead of sons and daughters.

We perform.
We strive.
We hide.

Meanwhile, the Father is still inviting us closer.

One of the most beautiful truths in Scripture is that Jesus did not reluctantly endure the cross just to tolerate us. Scripture describes the Church as His bride—His inheritance, the one He willingly came for. 

That truth changes the way we see ourselves.

You are not an afterthought in the Kingdom of God.
You are not barely accepted.
You are not the consolation prize.

You are deeply wanted by the Creator Himself.

And when we truly begin to understand our inheritance in Christ, it changes the way we walk through suffering, disappointment, and uncertainty. We stop living with the mentality of abandoned orphans and start living with the confidence of children who know where they belong.

Not because life suddenly becomes easy.
But because our identity becomes settled.

We have access to the Father.
We are filled with His Spirit.
We are no longer condemned.
We are no longer slaves.

We are heirs. 

And maybe that is the picture I come back to most as a mom.

My children never hesitate to crawl up beside me on the couch, raid the pantry, ask for help, or come looking for comfort when they are hurting. They do not stop and wonder whether they have earned their place in this family that day. They simply rest in the security of being mine.

What if we approached God that way?

What if, instead of standing at a distance in shame, we ran to Him with the confidence of children who know the door is always open? What if we truly believed there was still a seat for us at the table—not because of our perfection, but because of His love?

The invitation of the Gospel is not to strive harder for sonship.

It is to rest in the sonship Jesus already secured.

Because the greatest part of our inheritance is not simply what God gives us.

It is that He gives us Himself.

“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” — Galatians 4:7