Our transformation -
orphans becoming sons and daughters.

This chart helps us think about whether we are living more like orphans or cherished children. We first saw something like this in a Sunday school class years ago. Ever since, it has helped us to think about how we are living and feeling in our day-to-day interactions and decisions. Are we acting out of our identity as God’s children, or do we feel more like we are abandoned orphans?

As you think about the topic, you’ll probably be able to add to the chart. Send us your ideas!

Scroll down and read the wonderful quotes at the end of the page.

ORPHANS	SONS AND DAUGHTERS
Feel alone, abandoned, as if no one is looking out for them.	Know their Father is with them.
Are anxious.	Are free from worry (Matt 6).
Express needs with difficulty; prayer is a last resort.	Pray freely and confidently; love to talk to their Father.
Fear the future.	Are confident and unafraid (1 John 4:18).
Feel condemned and unworthy.	Feel loved, forgiven and totally accepted.
Grasp and hoard to take care of themselves; need to be in control.	Follow Jesus, who laid down his life to serve.
Think that weakness is bad-only the toughest survive.	See weakness as an opportunity for their Father to provide.
Are driven by self–will: everyone look out for yourself.	Motivated by their Father’s will. Have someone who knows better in whom they trust.
Do not belong.	Belong to a permanent family.

QUOTES

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18 It is like a fairy story – the reigning monarch adopts waifs and strays to make princes of them – but, praise God, it is not a fairy story: it is hard and solid fact, founded on the bedrock of free and sovereign grace. This, and nothing less than this, is what adoption means. No wonder that John cries, ‘Behold, what manner of love…!’ When once you understand adoption, your heart will cry the same.

J.I. Packer, Knowing God