ABBA FATHER

When I lost my dad in 2008, I often focused on how blessed I was to be his daughter. I remember a day when someone told me I was his favorite. I knew it wasn’t true because my dad treated each one of his three children as his favorite. I’d see him working alongside my sister as they cared for his ailing mother, and I’d realize that she was his favorite. When Dad and my brother would leave for a hunting trip, I knew that as his namesake, he was the favorite. There were days he’d look at me with a grin and I’d believe I was his favorite. Dad’s lack of favoritism didn’t happen by chance. He learned it from God.

It humbles me to think that I am the Lord’s favorite, but so are you and the billions of other people out there.

I imagine God seated on His throne pointing to one of His children. “Jesus, look at that one. She loves me so much. She’s my favorite.”

Maybe He steers Jesus’ attention toward a man. “Did you see what he did? He’s my favorite.”

Perhaps the Lord looks at a newborn child and with tears in His eyes says, “Oh, Jesus, isn’t that baby beautiful? She’s my favorite.”

One definition in the dictionary labels a favorite as “a person treated with special or undue favor by a king.” Do we truly understand that we are treated with undue favor not just by a king or world leader, but by The King of the Universe? We don’t deserve it. We never will. Yet He favors us anyway.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus hung on a cross searching the future for your face and mine. With the most sacrificial act of love ever shown to mankind, Jesus declared, “This blood is for you because you are My favorite.”

In John 11 a man named Lazarus was sick. His sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.” THE ONE you love. They knew a secret that many people have yet to discover. Lazarus was Jesus’ favorite. So was Mary. So was Martha. So was each one of His disciples. So is every single person who has ever lived. So are you, and so am I.

We are all God’s favorites.

God blessed me with an earthly father who made me feel like his favorite every day of his life. Maybe you weren’t that fortunate as a child. You may have been neglected, abused, or unloved. Whatever the case, you can be assured that there is a Heavenly Father who is speaking to your heart today, “Child, you are my favorite.”

This week won’t you join me in praising God as our ABBA FATHER who treats us all as His favorites?

Sunday Supplication

Abba Father, thank You for loving me as if I truly was Your favorite. As I celebrate Father’s Day today, I praise You as my perfect Father who loves me unconditionally and eternally. Train me up as Your child to be worthy of Your love. AMEN! SO BE IT!

Monday Manna

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 8:14-17

Tuesday Treasure

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Galatians 4:4-7

Wednesday Wisdom

No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

1 John 2:23-25

Thursday Truth

But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.

1 Corinthians 8:6 (NLT)

Friday Fact

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the LORD. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalm 68:4-6

Saturday Song