We cry " Abba" Father

Weekly Devotion Feb 26, 2015

We cry “Abba”, Father

“because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.”( Romans 8:15,16)

Abba, father. We call papa. When I started following Jesus, I was not understanding  this fact of God, being a father. Our concept of God was what we have in the Old Testament. God was Allah. Period. He was the “ God is great”. That’s the recitation we liked.  we acknowledged him as one God, powerful, great, creator, one who sent prophets , sent down messages . We recited and memorized his word, the Quran.  God was just God and we had many names and characteristics of God. Ninety nine . But God as Father was never spoken of.

Jesus when he comes into our life, he comes by the Holy Spirit. The great and merciful God comes in our life by the Holy Spirit and recreates our spirit , removing the estrangement  , the enmity and the  separation  between us . it is the Spirit of sonship, the Spirit of the son the God, that gives us access to God in a form of relationship that is as close as one of father and a son. A relationship between a father and a son is one of a hugging and loving relationship. There is no fear between them. When I brought up my six children , I made sure that my children could approach me as a father who would always love them, no matter what mistakes they made.  In my early years of following Jesus , I would often kneel down and raise my hands to God and cry out to him “ God if you are my father,  I need your hug.” And he would open the windows of heaven and pour out his Holy Spirit all over me. There would be such a mighty presence of God as though he was hugging me and holding my hands. My whole being would be filled with his loving touch and presence of the father.  I experienced what  Jesus taught about prayer. "When you pray, say:" 'Father,hallowed be your name,” ( Luke 11:8). Jesus sets us free from the fear of a great God and brings us into a loving relationship of a son and a father. We become his children , his sons and daughters. We are his family now.  The God that I feared who could send me to hell, whose word was of fear and judgment , through Christ , became my father in heaven, adopted me as his son. He came in me so that I can have a personal relationship with him.  . He gave me eternal life and assurance of salvation as a free gift. Through Jesus,  God is our father . Call him “ papa” .