Abba, Father
April 13
Abba, Father
"The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'"
— Romans 8:15
Today's Story
Brennan Manning, the author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, wrote about his lifelong struggle to truly receive the love of God as Father. A turning point came through a prayer experience in which he felt addressed as 'Brennan, I love you' — not 'I love all people including you' but specifically him. He spent years helping others discover that the 'Abba' relationship was not theological jargon but the lived reality of those filled with the Spirit. He often quoted the theologian William Barry: 'The central question of prayer is whether or not we dare to believe that God is as Jesus described — not just the supreme power but our loving Father who delights in us.'
Reflection
Abba is an Aramaic word used by small children for their fathers — roughly equivalent to 'Daddy' in English. It was radically intimate for a first-century Jewish person to use this term for the God of Israel. Jesus used it in Gethsemane (Mark 14:36), and Paul tells us that the Spirit of God prompts us to use the same word. This is the nature of Christian prayer: not a formal audience with a distant sovereign but a child speaking to a Father. The contrast Paul sets up is deliberate: not a spirit of slavery and fear, but a spirit of adoption. Fear approaches God from a distance, braced for rejection. The adopted child runs to the Father with full confidence of welcome. Which posture characterizes your prayer life today?
Today's Prayer
Abba — Father — I come to You as a child, not as a servant performing for approval. I am Your adopted child. Let me live today from the security of that relationship. Amen.
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