The Spirit Who Speaks Over the Accuser

Fear has a way of turning God into a master and turning you into a servant hoping not to be dismissed. You obey to keep him from turning on you, and you assume that after a failure the distance between you has grown. Paul knows this fear well, and he names it directly. He writes, 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. Abba is the word a small child uses for a father he trusts completely, and Paul says the Spirit puts that word in your mouth. There are mornings when your own spirit has nothing good to say about you, when the inner voice sounds like an accuser reading your failures aloud. On those mornings there is a deeper witness. God's own Spirit speaks alongside your weary one and insists that you are a child. You do not have to work up the feeling of belonging; the Spirit testifies to it whether you feel it or not. When you cannot pray anything else today, try saying Father, and let the Spirit carry the word for you.