The Audacity of “Abba”

It’s been years since God first called me for a deeper relationship with him and I remember at the beginning of this process hearing this:

“Sometimes we are ready to receive God’s wrath but not ready to receive his love”.

 I don’t remember who said that, but these words have been with me for a long time. And Yes! I totally resonated with that. As a perfectionist, I could never see myself good enough to achieve many things, including earning my place at God’s table as a daughter. As God’s word became my daily bread, I realized that even knowing more about his character, I was still more ready for his punishment than for his love. Yet, the word of God speaks and constantly sharpens our thoughts and aligns our emotions. So, when I feel unprepared to receive His love, the question I ask myself is,

“What lies am I believing instead of what His word says?”

Once I identify them, I intentionally let His word wash my thoughts. Just like with this one from Galatians:

 “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”  — Galatians 4:6

You may cry out to God, 'Abba,' but do you know what that actually means? Here is what I learned:

Abba is not just a Nickname

We’ve heard it said so often that “Abba” simply means “Daddy” — a soft, sentimental word for a toddler learning to talk. And I am not here to say that there is not truth in that, because it is a word of closeness. BUT it carries more weight than warmth alone. When Paul says the Spirit cries out “Abba, Father” in our hearts, he’s pointing to something that’s both deeply intimate and legally certain, the cry of a child who knows, without doubt, that they belong. We belong to God; we are his and he is ours. Even when we face discipline (because sometimes correction is necessary), we keep belonging to him. Hebrews 12 says that God disciplines sons and daughters, so let us receive his love in whatever form this can take, whether as a cheer of approval or as a discipline.

Abba opens us the way to relate to God just like Jesus did

Here’s what makes this so striking: search the Gospels, and there’s only one place where Jesus’s exact “Abba” cry is recorded — his agonizing prayer in Gethsemane, the night before the cross. Not in a moment of ease. In the middle of sorrow, sweat, and the weight of what was coming.

That’s no coincidence. When the Spirit reproduces that same cry in us, he isn’t handing us a warm, fuzzy feeling. He’s handing us Jesus’s own prayer, the cry of someone who trusted the Father completely, even while asking if there was another way, even in the face of suffering.

Abba is a Proof of adoption

This is the real evidence of adoption. Not the ability to perform miracles, not visions, not spiritual gifts, as good as those can be. The most basic mark of belonging to God is this: the new way we’re permitted to speak to him. Not as servants negotiating for favor. But as children who already have a seat at the table.

So, if you’re walking through something hard right now, the kind of night that feels like your own Gethsemane, that isn’t proof you’ve lost your footing with God. It might be the opposite. The Spirit reproducing that exact cry in you, in the middle of pain, is what sonship sounds like.

What would change today if you believed, all the way down, that you have the right to cry “Abba, Father”, not because you’ve earned it, but because you belong?

Let us receive his love and cry in all circumstances, holding to the truth that we belong and that is not going to change.

 Thank you, “Abba”!