Casual Conversations with God

Published: Aug. 2, 2021, midnight

b'Some of my Christian friends like to start praying by calling God \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153Father,\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d and they aren\\u2019t the first! When Jesus\\u2019 disciples asked Him how to pray, He taught them a prayer that many Christians have since memorized (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4). This prayer begins by calling God \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153our Father.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d Isn\\u2019t it amazing that when Jesus came, He revealed the kind of relationship God wants to have with us? Not only is God the Creator and Supreme Ruler of everything, God also desires close relationship with us\\u2014that\\u2019s why He sent His Son, Jesus. He wants to adopt us as His very own kids.\\nWhen Jesus prayed, sometimes He called God \\u201cAbba\\u201d (Mark 14:36), which is an Aramaic word that Jewish people (both children and adults) used for their fathers. We don\\u2019t have a word quite like this in English, because \\u201cAbba\\u201d has connotations of both intimacy and respect. Later in the Bible, Paul says that we who have put our trust in Jesus can also call God \\u201cAbba\\u201d (Romans 8:14-17).\\nSome people at my church call God Abba, and others call Him Papa or Daddy. Calling God our dad makes sense when we remember how Jesus said that the faith God desires is like the faith of a little child (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14; Luke 18:17). When you think about it, we humans are so much smaller and less powerful and less intelligent than God, but He is so tenderhearted toward us, like a loving parent toward their small children. We depend on God for all of our needs, even more than an infant depends on their parents\\u2014every breath we breathe is a gift from God. The beautiful part of this is we don\\u2019t need to be embarrassed about feeling young or small with Him (1 Kings 3:7-9). He already knows us completely, and He wants us to be His. That\\u2019s why He sent His Son, Jesus, to provide us with forgiveness and adoption into God\\u2019s family (Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5).\\nAs His adopted kids, we can come to God with confidence, knowing that He always wants us to come to Him (Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16). \\u2022 Hannah Howe\\n\\u2022 If you could talk to God about anything, knowing that He\\u2019s just so happy you are with Him, what would you talk to Him about? \\nSo you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God\\u2019s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153Abba, Father.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d Romans 8:15 (NLT)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nJohn 1:1-14; John 15:9-21; Acts 17:27; Romans 8:31-39'