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Trust Jesus' Abba as your AbbaSpreading The Truth One Byte At A Time By Ron Bender© 2008, 2013 Probably you know Jesus’ famous Parable of the Prodigal Son, but have you found yourself in the story? Has your heart been melted by experiencing Almighty God as your Abba, your dear Papa? One way to do this is to spend some time with Rembrandt’s painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son.” It’ll improve your view of God and your relationship with him. Many Christian leaders and Christ-followers of all kinds struggle to trust God as their Abba. On the surface they believe that God loves them this much — they may teach this message to others — but in their hearts they are not experiencing the affectionate embrace of God that Rembrandt portrays in his visual rendering of Jesus’ parable. As they do what they do in their daily lives they are not putting their confidence in the God Jesus knows as Abba. What is your Image of God?Many people have in the background of their mind or in their unconscious a view of a distant God, sort of like a statue that looks beautiful, but is cold and unmoving — they can’t get close and personal with him. For others their image is of a stern-faced God who is like a policeman or a judge that upholds the law harshly — they can never be good enough to be accepted. Still others have a concept of a God as kind and nice, like Santa Claus he is happy to give gifts to almost anyone but he lacks true character — they don’t learn how to become more like Jesus. It takes some understanding the actual image of God that you operate on. We develop our view of God as children, based mostly on our relationships with our father, mother, and others who are significant in our personal and spiritual development. If you grew up with abuse, addiction, abandonment, condemnation, pressure to perform, or emotional neglect (and most of us have experienced at least some of one or more of those wounds) then it affects your internal, heart-level image of what God is like. The Return of the ProdigalHenri Nouwen spent months meditating on Rembrandt’s painting of Jesus’ parable from Luke 15:11-32. This brought deep healing to his soul and led him to write a wonderful book, The Return of the Prodigal Son (same title as the painting.) Jesus’ parable is full of the wonders of heaven. The heart of the parable is Jesus showing us in the father of the prodigal and elder sons what our Heavenly Father is like. Jesus prayed to God as Abba (Mark 14:36) and he wanted us to know this wonderful blessing too. If Nouwen spent months with this work of art it might benefit us to spend a few minutes! Indeed, it is very profitable for our souls to meditate on a work of art or a scene in nature in a similar way that we meditate on a Bible passage. You can try this with Rembrandt’s painting pictured above… Perhaps there is a figure in the background of the painting that is painful for you either because you’ve been treated that way or you identify with that character? Spend a few moments reflecting and praying as you consider each onlooker:
Have you accepted that you are in the position of the prodigal son before the father? All of us — even if we’re hard-working, dutiful elder brother types — have left our Father and need to return to him. If you are in the position of one of the onlookers step into the Father’s loving embrace.
Can you imagine yourself as the father? You may not have thought of that before, but there are people in your life who need your love and care.
Hold Abba in your Heart NowWhen you put your confidence in Jesus Christ he puts the Holy Spirit in your heart. The Holy Spirit is your Strengthener and Advocate in all things. He intercedes for you to help you know and rely upon God as your Abba (Galatians 4:6). Try holding the embrace of Abba in your heart. Let Rembrandt’s picture to be drawn on your heart. Pray to God as “Abba.” My little Breath Prayer inspired by Psalm 33:21 may help: “Rejoice in Abba… trust in his holy name.” You might write this down and memorize it. Then you can repeat it to yourself over and over, slowly praying the words from your heart to let them sink deep inside. To help you appreciate this great truth and hold onto it you might try the Breath Prayer this way…
Other BytesI love to pray to God as Abba and this has been so helpful to so many people so I write about it a lot! “Abba’s Child” will help you discover your true identity.
Thank you! Ron Ronald Bender- President/CEO Bender Consulting.~http://www.benderbytes.net/bender_consult
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