How do you view God? In my childhood I saw God as someone who was distant and harsh. In my youth years God was a figure at the very edges of my life. In my early adult years God was present and important but not intimate. That all changed when I was about thirty years old. God moved from just being Lord, Savior, All-Power, All-Knowing, and Creator to being All-Loving and my Abba.
In Mark 14:36 Jesus refers to God as Abba. Abba is an intimate term for father. It is the name that a son or daughter would call their father and something only they would call him.
You may be thinking what I used to think, that God the Father was Jesus’ Abba. Jesus could know Him that way because He was Jesus, but that cannot be true of me or you.
Paul in Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Also, in Galatians 4:6 Paul says, “And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Not only is God the Father Jesus’ Abba, He can be the Abba of every follower of Jesus.
God being our Abba means that God is our Provider.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Our Abba has all that we need and He gives us all that we need.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is looking to and receive all we need from our Abba.
God being our Abba means that God is our Protector.
Exodus 14:14
The Lord will fight for you, and you only have to be silent.
Many of the things that come against us and threaten to destroy us are too big and powerful for us to handle. God is bigger and more powerful than anything we will face in life, and He will fight and protect us.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God to fight for us and protect us as our Abba.
God being our Abba means that God will never abandon us.
Hebrews 13:5
God says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Many people in our lives leave us. Some choose to leave us and some by circumstances have to leave us. God promises to never leave us or forsake us. He will never abandon us; He will not even ignore us.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing we will experience the presence of God continual for eternity.
God being our Abba means that God will love us and not let anything separate us from His love.
Jeremiah 31:3
The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
God loves us with a love that will never end.
God loves us with a love that will not ever wafer.
God loves us with a love that is not based on how we behave.
Romans 8:38-39
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angles nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God loves us with a love no spiritual authority can separate us from.
God loves us with a love no physical authority can separate us from.
God loves us with a love no time or distant can separate us from.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the love of God and knowing nothing will be able to separate us from His love.
God is our Abba, our Dad, our Daddy, our Pops. He wants to put His arms around us and love us and for us to truly experience His provision, His protection, His presence, and His love.
Experiencing God as Our Abba Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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