ORPHAN CHART
| An Orphan’s View | A Son’s View | Mixed Up Orphan/Son View | |
| God | Stern Judge Sense of Disapproval |
Loving Father who accepts and approves | Grandfather/ understanding/ detached |
| Sin | Guilty Powerless Depressed Penance Defensive | Forgiven and righteous Free to repent-change | Better than others- Resigned to failure- Lowers the standard |
| Prayer | Difficult Results based on performance |
First resort is to ask Father to fulfill His will | Vague and Unfocused Unanswered |
| Others | Judgmental/Controlling Distrustful | Free to Love Confident of Spirit’s Power | Self-Centered/ Self-Protective |
| Obedience | Self-righteous/ Basis of God’s discipline/Determination/ Unlimited Obligation/Joyless/Must look good at all cost |
Joyfully confident of the Spirit’s power to enable through grace | Weakness/Partial and rationalized/Self-indulgent/Careless |
| Ministry | Independent/Self-reliant/Driven and Burned Out/Boastful | Believe God’s Spirit works through Teams to advance His kingdom | Evasive/Unable to endure |
| Suffering | Good=blessed Bad=punishment | Believes God orders life to transform us into Christ-likeness | Survival/Numb or Run |
| Motivation | Success-Failure/Reputation/Law-Keeping/Approval | Grace/God’s undeserved love | Feelings Desires Pleasures |
The way back to being a “Son” in these areas is to believe the good news of the Gospel, to boast in the Gospel: that you are loved, forgiven and accepted as righteous in God’s sight in each of these areas by one means only – as a gift through Jesus Christ and His work on your behalf.