Galatians 4:6-7. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Think together: What do you call your father? Dad? Daddy?
Read together: Being a Christian is NOT about obeying a bunch of rules. It’s about being a child to the best Dad in the universe. When Jesus would talk about or to God the Father, he would call him Abba—Dad. Not master. Not boss. Not teacher or coach. Jesus always talked to his Heavenly Father as his daddy whom he loved. When we have Jesus living in our hearts, we become sons of God too—His children. Now we can call God Abba, Dad, Daddy. We can know that we are loved unconditionally and cared for perfectly by our Heavenly Dad.
Have you ever gotten really mad at your dad? Maybe you even said, “I wish you weren’t my dad.” But did that change the fact that your dad is your dad? Nope. No matter what you say or do, your dad is always your dad. With Jesus, God is always your dad too, no matter what you say or do.
Sometimes Christians will say that they don’t feel close to God. But it doesn’t matter how you feel. Just like your dad always loves you, God is always close to you. Look at what Paul said: “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” God the Spirit lives in our hearts, and you can’t get any closer to God than that. We can never say that God is closer or farther away from us. By the Holy Spirit, we are always and forever relating to our Abba. And we constantly want to; we want to love him from the heart, the same way that he loves us.
Maybe your dad isn’t around much, doesn’t live with you, or has gone away. If that is true, I’m really sorry. When that happens, it is really sad. We all need a good dad here on Earth to help us. But never forget that even if your earthly dad is absent, your Heavenly Dad is always and forever with you. Never forget, your Abba knows everything about you and loves you anyway. God will never stop being your Abba. And he would never want to.
Do something together: Illustrate the difference between a dry erase marker and a permanent sharpie marker. Write “feeling” words in dry erase marker. These words can easily be wiped away, always changing like our feelings. Write “Child of God” in permanent marker. This can never be erased.
Because of Jesus: We have a heavenly Dad that always loves us.
With Jesus: We are never alone, never away from our Abba.
Pray: Father, Dad, thank you for always and forever loving me just as much as you love Jesus. Amen.
