Galatians 4:6-7. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
At its core, Christianity is about a relationship, one secured by our union with Christ. Our relationship with God can be a complex thing. Shepherd-sheep. Potter-clay. Master-slave. Friend-friend. Partners. These all describe unique ways that we relate to God. But the relationship Paul emphasizes here in Galatians 4 is one that offers us a perfectly unconditional love and a security beyond all the others: the relationship of Father-Son.
When, as a child, you threw a tantrum and yelled “I hate you!” to your father (or mother), the truth is that nothing could change the reality that your dad is still your dad. That identity is unchanging, no matter how insidious the behavior of the child.
The same is true of our relationship with our Abba. We speak of being in or out of fellowship with God, of being “closer” or “farther” from God, as if our relationship with him is unstable. But God is closer to us than our own heart. I get it; we don’t always feel close to God. But what is changing is my own awareness of my relationship with him, not the actual relationship itself. Like the temper-tantrum-throwing little child who sees their dad’s love as burdensome, we too lose sight of his goodness, grace, and, ultimately, his presence. And yet his presence never changes. “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.” Do you see that?—“into our hearts.” We can never call God more or less present, nearer or farther. By the Spirit, we are constantly and consistently relating to our Abba. And we constantly want to; we want to love him from the heart.
The danger in saying that we have a “relationship” with God is that we project our human relationships onto it. We are constantly moving in and out of relationships. And so we see our relationship with God as “on-again, off-again,” like a boyfriend or girlfriend. If our relationship to God were on Facebook, it would say “It’s Complicated.” But it’s not complicated. It’s not confusing. It’s not like your relationship with your earthly father (or at least my earthly father). Does he care? Does he not care? Will he show up? Will he forget? Will he explode? Will he ignore? Does he even remember that I exist?
Yes. Your Abba knows everything about you and loves you anyway. God will never stop being your Abba. And he would never want to.
You: Do you consider your relationship with God to be stable or unstable?
You in Christ: How is the unconditional love of God actively setting you free?
Christ in you: Where can you recognize the Spirit of Sonship at work in your heart? Do you see your desires and motivations changing at all?
Pray: Father, you are my Abba, my Dad. Your love for me is unchanging and unending. Never let go of me. Amen.
