When I Cry, Abba! Father!

When they talk to me they do not use my given name. When they speak to me they speak to me in terms of our relationship. Mother, Mommy, Mom all these names unlock my heart. Because I have this relationship with my children it help me understand how Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

I'm really glad Jesus' disciples asked him how to pray because prayer is such a mystery to me. The fact that Jesus told them to begin by calling the God of the Universe Father is significant. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the sons of God." (1 John 3: 1) So my prayer begins with a reminder that the love of God has been lavished on me because He has chosen me to be His child.

When Jesus was encouraging His disciples to relate to God as their father He said, "Which one of you, if his son asks for a bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"(Matthew 7:7-11) When I begin my prayer with "Father" I am reminded I am not only speaking to God's ear I'm speaking to His heart.

Sometimes my children call me Mother but sometimes they call me Mommy. The term Mommy is very tender and intimate it is like calling my father daddy. Because I have been adopted into God's family He has sent the Spirit of his Son into my heart. His spirit cries, "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4: 6) Sometimes life crushes me so hard I don't know what to say. When this happens the same Spirit that cries "Abba! Father!" helps me in my weakness. "The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words." (Romans 8:24)

Father, I come before Your throne not like a slave to her master but like a child to her Father. And when the world comes crushing down on me and I cry, "Abba! Father!" I know that you not only hear me with Your heart You even give me the words to say.