1965 Abwoon D’bwashmaya

BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Content provided by Pamela Crim | Daily Devotional for Women. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Pamela Crim | Daily Devotional for Women or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

7d ago 18:54

MP3•Episode home

Did you know we are told to pray to God and refer to him as our Daddy or Papa? That’s not disrespectful. That’s not irreverent. It’s personal.

God actually wants to be more than just your Creator, more than just the director of your life and supreme authority, he wants to be in a close and special relationship with you. A relationship of deep affection that offers you the ultimate security.

One day a crowd followed Jesus up to a mountainside and he sat down to teach them. He taught them how to handle the real issues of life. And here, Jesus teaches us how to pray. He gives us the example of how to talk to God. We now call it the Lord’s prayer and maybe you even have it memorized. Matthew 6: 9, Jesus begins by saying, “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven …”

In Aramaic, the language Jesus used when teaching this prayer, it is Abwoon d’bwashmaya. Abwoon is an intimate word combining Abba, which is the term a child uses for their father, like Daddy or Papa, and womb which is the source of life. D’bwashmaya is translated into “who is in the heavens”, but not as we think of the heavens today. In Jesus’ time, heavens didn’t mean a far off place in the sky. Rather, it was the unseen spirit that is all around us and in us. Right here is the heavens. In our breath is the heavens. Jesus used the phrase “Abwoon d’bwashmaya” to teach us of a personal God who is not distant, but in our immediate presence seeking a personal relationship. And we’re to talk to him as such.

Our Father in heaven – Abwoon d’bwashmaya – Our Daddy who is here with us – Our Papa God who is close, in all things, giving life.

Then, when Paul is chosen by God to share the Good News and teach the gospel of Jesus, he explains in Romans 8:15 that because we are adopted as God’s own children, we are to “call him Abba, Father.” Again, we’re reminded Abba is the term a child uses for their relationship of love and trust with their Daddy, their Papa. It shows respect, deep affection and security.

Girls, this is who our God is. He’s our Daddy. The one we can most trust. The one we can have a true relationship with.

If you’ve been listening for several years, perhaps you remember a time when I used to pray at the end of each episode and I would begin by saying, “Good morning, Papa God.” Some loved it, and some more than hated it. As the emails poured in, I struggled to understand why this was such a point of contention for so many. Why was it so hard to call God Abwoon, Abba, Daddy, Papa? Why was this offensive to some?

For a bit, I must sadly admit, I doubled down. I wanted to prove my point. I speak to God in the way Jesus and Paul did. I’m in a relationship with God, he’s my Papa. I come to him like a child and I find my greatest security in him. But then something happened … My dear Papa God moved my heart and showed me why so many were struggling with this. And, if I continued to push it, I would be creating an unnecessary stumbling block to some who were genuinely seeking a relationship with God.

This is why I dropped it. My Papa God asked me to. He didn’t want a stumbling block between him and a single one of his girls. That’s the most important thing to him.

My Earthly Daddy was one of the best human beings I’ve ever met. He wasn’t perfect, but he loved me perfectly. He was my protector, my provider, my safe place, my warm space. Sitting on my Daddy’s lap, I was always good enough and forever loved. Because of his love, accepting God as my Heavenly Daddy was no stretch at all. In fact, because of my personal experience with my Daddy, Papa God is a perfect fit for me to know my Abwoon d’bwashmaya, my Abba Father, the personal God who is close and seeking a special relationship with me, his daughter.

But for many others, there’s a massive gap there. They didn’t have the example of a loving father, a protector and provider – a safe place where they were always good enough and forever loved in the arms of their Daddy. And if that relationship has been twisted, spoiled, or completely absent, then maybe it’s hard to think of God as a Daddy and feel the affection and security it was intended to bring.

And don’t you realize, this is exactly why the Fathers in family relationships have been a direct target of the enemy. If he can cause hurt in the heart of God’s girls and make them distance themselves from a Father, then naturally looking at God as their loving Father will be even harder. If there’s a strain on the earthly relationship with a father, then the relationship with a heavenly father could be strained as well.

I’m not a therapist, so I don’t have the 5 steps for healing that, but I know this much – it desperately needs to be healed. Anything creating a divide between us and our Abwoon d’bwashmaya, our Abba Father, our Papa God, is a work of the devil. Satan knows the security you would feel in deep relationship with your loving Father. He knows your relationship with God deepening to a place where you can run to him, crawl in his lap, and just rest in him as your Daddy and you as his little girl, always good enough and forever loved – well that would be a threatening place for you to be. That’s the last thing the devil wants.

The devil has worked overtime to attack the Fathers. You see, he knows the statistics. He knows if the Daddy follows Christ, odds are the family will follow. Some statistics say if the Mother follows Christ, there’s a 17% chance the children will follow Christ and remain in relationship with him for their lives. But if the Father follows Christ, the odds are 93% that the children will as well. That’s huge – and it’s why it’s become a huge problem today. It’s a strategic attack of the enemy on the Daddys so the sons and daughters can’t trust God as their Heavenly Daddy.

The truth is, if we see our Daddy as a Godly man who loved us well, then it’s much easier for us to have a close childlike relationship with God, just as Jesus tells us to have.

My prayer for you today is if there are barriers that have been built blocking you from that childlike relationship with God that is like a little girl with her loving Daddy, then I pray in the name of Jesus that those walls would come crashing down. I pray that you be immersed in the love of Abwoon d’bwashmaya, Abba Father, Papa God and you find healing, confidence, security and absolute adoration like you’ve never experienced before. I pray that the attacks on your family would not be successful in creating barriers in your relationship with a God who wants to be more than just your creator, more than just the director of your life and more than just your supreme authority, but he wants to be your Daddy. Yes, YOUR DADDY, because you are forever his beloved, treasured, chosen girl.

We will end today with the MSG translation of Romans 8:15, “This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant with a childlike, ‘What’s next, Papa?'” Could this be why Jesus said we must become childlike to receive the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3-4)? Trusting God as our Daddy, our Papa God, with that sweet expectant innocence of a child. That is a true relationship, one God seeks with us. This is the relationship your soul was designed to crave and be empty without.

What’s next, Papa. I trust you. I find complete confidence and security in you. I know you are right here with me, I know you love me, and I am held by you. So, whatever is next, we’re going there together! Me and you, Papa God. Together.

Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

554 episodes

#Self-Improvement #Pamela Crim | Daily Devotional for Women #Christianity #Society #Religion #Podcasting Education