God as Abba

During his earthly ministry, Jesus referred to God as Abba.  This was unheard of at the time I believe; though I'm no Biblical scholar so don't quote me on that.  Abba was the Jewish way of saying Daddy.  That is the kind of relationship we are supposed to have with our Heavenly Father.  One where we're close enough to call Him Daddy.

That's really some heavy stuff theologically if we unpack it for a minute.  The God who created the universe wants nothing more than for us to come before His throne and call Him Daddy.  He calls us His children.  He adopted us.  How are we ever to grasp that concept fully.  It's a little picture when someone adopts a child now.  They choose that child and now they're adopted into the family.  The new parents take custody of the child.  They are now responsible for that child.

Similarly, God takes custody and responsibility for us.  We are His.  We have been purchased at a price, at an incredible cost to our Savior who died for us.  Don't miss this incredible truth.  On our own, we can't make our way to God.  No, quite the opposite, He had to make a way for us.

We are not worthy to even untie the thong of his sandal, to echo John the Baptist.  And yet, in His great love, God sent His Son to die for you and me, that we might come to Him and know Him.  We are to pursue knowledge of God through His love for us.  His love frees us to be all we can be for His kingdom.  We are freed to make much of the One who freed us.  Until we realize this we will live unfulfilled lives.

Now, to be fair, there are people who live much more fulfilled lives apart from Christ than those who have Christ.  Or so it seems, right?  But we are reminded in Scripture that God sends the sun and rain on the righteous and unrighteous.  Just because someone doesn't choose to believe in Christ doesn't mean they are living without being blessed.

There's a thing that theologians call common grace, which I don't pretend to understand even halfway.  But I think the basic premise is that God extends grace to all mankind, and sometimes specific societies like how Western societies have many of their basic needs met for the overwhelming majority of their citizens.  In the states, even in the midst of a recession there are still jobs out there.  They may not be ideal, like I'm currently applying for some serving jobs which isn't ideal, but there are still jobs out there.  That is common grace.

If we recognize that we are His children, life just makes more sense.  Why do good people suffer so much?  Sometimes it's to help someone down the road who will go through the same struggle.  Sometimes it's to bear witness to how faithful God is in the midst of our deepest struggles.  With God, life takes on so much more meaning.  We are able to find purpose in the most mundane of tasks as we try and do everything for the glory of God.

Doing things for the glory of God isn't some esoteric, far away thing that sounds nice but can't really be accomplished.  No, we are given incredible minds and as such we can wash the dishes and be praying to God in our minds and spirits at the same time.  We can commit to doing our best at any job because we realize that is what God asks of us in our working lives.