Besides the obvious (and precious) gift of salvation we acquire when we become ‘sons of God’ (Christians), I’ve often wondered why the truth of sonship is so important? I’m not a son myself, because I’m a girl (hopefully that is not a newsflash to anyone reading this), but I do have a father, and in the Bible when sonship is spoken of, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a girl or a boy, we are all ‘sons in the house of God’. Sonship reaches far beyond gender.

Some of you reading this post may know my dad, Will Marais, in a close way. You may call him a great friend, pastor or mentor. By virtue of that level of relationship, you gain access to my dad’s wisdom, advice, friendship, help in crisis and company. These benefits are in fact rather great!

Now let me jump to a day a few years back when I faced ‘one of the worst days of my life’. The day I crawled into my bed at our family home, in the same clothes I’d been wearing all day… I was a mess of tear-stained cheeks and a snotty ‘after-crying’ face. After I’d been lying there for just a few minutes, my dad came into my room, got into my little single bed with me, pulled me close, tucked the covers around my body like he did when I was a little girl, whispered words of affirmation over me and just held me close and let me cry all over again.

You see, being my dad’s daughter gave me access to intimacy with him, just as the adoption Jesus bought for us…gains us access to intimacy with our Heavenly Father

Now, as wonderfully close as some of you may be with my dad, there is no way that would be appropriate for him to do that with any one of you. It would be strange, borderline massively weird. However, for me, even then at 20 something years old, it was okay…more than okay, it was precious to me. You see, being my dad’s daughter gave me access to intimacy with him, just as the adoption Jesus bought for us with His blood gains us access to intimacy with our Heavenly Father – sonship.

Now that we’ve established how great it is to know we have access to our Heavenly Dad, what is one of the ways I can ‘check myself’ to see whether my life evidences the signs of being a child of God? Romans 8:14 says, ‘for all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God’.  Leading, in this case, implies following, so if I am being led by the Spirit, I am following the Spirit. I am not marking out my own path or living my day on my own understanding, I’m following the Spirit’s leading. I’m acting like a ‘son in the house’.

 Leading, in this case, implies following, so if I am being led by the Spirit, I am following the Spirit.

On a practical note, I believe this means that my days are starting with moments of reflection, confession of the person of the Holy Spirit as my day’s guide, and waiting on Him for direction. How actively aware are we of the Spirit leading and guiding our lives? Do we experience the peace of knowing we’re ‘just’ following the Spirit’s gentle guidance? Is my life exhibiting this big characteristic of being a son in the house, or am I missing out on the intimacy that Jesus bought for me with His great sacrifice; that we get to be called children of God.

These are questions I continually ask myself, and I’m sure I will keep asking myself, as a sort of ‘safety check’ for the rest of my life.