gospel, God, passion, intimacy, fatherhood
Do You Relate to God? If So, Is He Only God to You? Or Is He Abba? Or Is He Father?
The Bible Talks of God in All Three Ways. They Are All Important. They Are Just Different in Dimension, Degree, and Intimacy.
We All Tend to Know God as ‘GOD’
My sister-in-law Judy has never come to know God personally. But she does at least recognize him as ‘The Big Guy in the Sky.’
Even atheists know God in this way. Whether they believe in him or not, they at least acknowledge that others do and that they worship a ‘GOD’ that is somehow bigger and more powerful than we can imagine.
The only time I’ve found that atheism is spoken of in the Bible is in Psalms where it says, “He is a fool who says there is no God.” I’m just quoting it!
Many people have an association with God who is ‘up there somewhere.’ He may be 50 million miles from the earth like many stars are, but at least they believe there is a God of some type. . . somewhere.
I think if we knew how close God was to our earth it would scare us.
But the fact is: most folks acknowledge there is probably a GOD… and he is the Creator of the earth and all the heavens as Genesis says. Even Darwin and his evolution theory died with some questions about God.
If God does nothing else, he at least watches us, takes notes and grades us. This is a poor view of God, but it does exist in the minds of many.
Do You Know God As ABBA?
Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul use the term: ‘Abba Father.’ Note that it is two words, and that ‘Abba’ comes before ‘Father.’
Too many religious people neglect this aspect of knowing God. Many try to develop a relationship with him as that of ‘Father,’ which comes next. They jump over ‘Abba’ becasue it’s a little too casual and intimate.
‘Abba’ is viewed like the picture above: God is an amazing DAD.
But Jesus says we must become like little children in order to truly see the Kingdom of God. Little children relate to their ‘Daddy.’ The familiar Jewish expression for God is ‘Papa.’ These are enduring, personal terms.
The term GOD is not personal. He’s academic. People who jump over knowing him as Abba think like my sister-in-law: God is ‘The Big Guy in the Sky.’ He’s just ‘an undefined entity,’ as we lawyers might say. He’s remote, perhaps unreachable, and so we can’t really connect with him.
But ‘ABBA’ is different. As children, we attach to him and connect with him. It’s not just a mental exercise, but a spiritual reality. Our heart becomes the key and we’re told ‘God looks at our hearts.’ He knows which hearts try to connect with him personally, and which hearts only know him as ‘GOD.’
I think it’s hard to know God at deeper levels, and in more a sense of maturity, if we don’t first become dependent on him and totally trust him, as a child knows and trusts and relates to his ‘Daddy.’
Then We Come to Know Him as ‘FATHER’
‘Abba’ is relating to God as a child might. But although Jesus says to keep a childlike nature about us, we do not remain a child for all of life. We grow up and become sons and daughters, and relate to God as ‘Father.’
Again, I’ve seen it’s much easier to relate to him in maturity, and as Father, if we first relate to him as ‘Abba’ and as ‘Daddy.’ I counseled people a few years and I saw that people who had a hard time in a close relationship with God were ones who had never known him as a child knows his Dad.
As ‘Father,’ we come into maturity that the New Testament gospel talks about. We become ONE with God. We become the BENEFICIARIES of all his ‘good news of good things.’ We become joint, equal HEIRS with Jesus. Father wants us to know him deeply, but it begins with knowing him as Abba.
People who never know God as Abba, live life as being servants of God, when Jesus says he elevates us to being FRIENDS of God. There is of course a big difference between the two. To Jesus, ‘friend’ is an endearing tem.
Knowing God as Abba, and also as Father allows us to grow into dimensions we can’t know in other ways. There is always a piece of the puzzle missing. It’s like we missed elementary school and went right into high school.
We Should Always Be Both Children and Adults
Jesus says we begin living in the Kingdom of God as little children. We grow into knowing God as Father as we mature as sons and daughters.
I wrote a piece about 15–20 years ago that I sometimes quote. I even quoted it in one of these Medium articles awhile back, but I feel it’s worth repeating.
I don’t know how to improve on saying we are both children and adults.
The gospel is about a Father who loves us more than we can ever possibly begin to imagine. As his kids, we come to know him as ‘Abba Father,’ and we fall in love with him more than we ever thought possible.
The longing of our Father’s heart is for us to know him just like a loving, dependent child relates to his Daddy — but also as mature sons and daughters know and respect their Father.
Both Jesus and Paul used the term ‘Abba Father.’ This denotes agape love and intimacy, but also awesome respect and reverence.
The word ‘Abba’ denotes an unreasoned expression of dependency, trust, love, and confidence from a child. We just know we’re ‘God’s kids.’
The word ‘Father’ denotes a reasoned appreciation, honor, esteem, and respect from a son or daughter. We enter into revelation of authority, blessing, inheritance, being established, and empowerment that only adults can receive and understand.
In our journey through life, we should always live in a constant realization that we are both God’s children, but also his sons and daughters.
A FREE GIFT: I give away a short, 36 flip page book that has a lot of pointers about how to relate to God better — as both Abba and Father. Click here to read it.
