GALATIANS 4:6-7
"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!' Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, than an heir of God through Christ."
As believers, the Spirit living within us makes us adopted children of God, and it is this by this same Spirit that a Christian is able to cry out to God as our Father. This is a powerful image of the new relationship believers have with God through Christ. We are now children of God and joint heirs through Christ, rightfully crying out to God as "Abba".
The God we worship is a Father who stands attentive to our needs, listening for our cries through the Spirit, ready to be there for us in our times of trial. For what good is it for a son to call to a father if that father is not listening?
But God is there to hear our cries. From the time of the establishment of the first temple by Solomon, God promised to hear the prayers of his people which are directed towards his name. God hears our cries every time we call out in the Spirit.
Some try to explain 'Abba' as a term of endearment, and it might be, but when tied to the idea of a cry, it becomes the shout of one calling out in pain and helplessness to the one they trust the most. Abba is the word we shout when we're afraid, or at the end of all other options, or when we're most threatened. For when we cry Abba, our God responds.
I think of the joy I've experienced as a parent when our children first called my name. It lifted my heart to hear the call of my child, to know they know me just as I know them. And when they cry out, they have my attention, for love demands my response. So it is with our Abba.
May our lives ever be calling to our Abba through the Spirit, for God desires to hear from us.
LORD JESUS
Lord, I thank you for the inheritance you give me in your name and the Spirit which now indwells my life so that I can call to our Abba. Thank you for such a wonderful blessing. Amen.
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