Getting to Know My Abba Father

This post is based on a lesson I presented to a Ladies Auxiliary group in 2003.

First, I’m going to tell you about some of my failures.

Many years ago, when I had an accounting practice, a lady came in to get her income tax return prepared. It was, of course, the busiest time of year for an accountant, and my mind was on business. Suddenly she said, “Your looking at a dead person.” My mind froze, and I know shock was all over my face. The woman, in her thirties, was terminally ill with cancer. The doctors had given her 3 months. I know I said, “I’m sorry” but beyond that I don’t recall what I said – maybe nothing. I finished getting the information I needed to prepare her return, told her it would be ready in a couple of weeks, and she left.

That meeting stayed on my mind and later that day I thought, “Why didn’t I ask if she’s ready to face eternity? What an incredible opportunity I had to witness to her, and I blew it.” I resolved to witness to her when she came in to pick up her return and I put a note on her file that I needed to see her when she came in.  Then I rehearsed in my mind exactly what I was going to say to her. Unfortunately, three days later I read her obituary in the paper. There was no mention of a church.

The lesson I learned from this experience is that I must always be prepared to witness at any time, because every opportunity I have to witness to someone could be that person’s last opportunity to be saved. Having rehearsed what I was going to say to her, I felt confident that I would never miss another opportunity.

Fast forward a few years. It was the end of the last day of a week-long Vacation Bible School. A little girl about nine years old had attended every day. She had never been to our church before that week. She looked up at me and said, “If a person was baptized when they were a baby, are they saved?” I said, “No, in order to be saved the Bible teaches that a person must put their faith in Jesus. A baby can’t do that. Were you baptized as a baby?” She nodded yes, and I thought, “she needs to talk to the Youth Minister.”

I spotted him across the room surrounded by children, and I told her, “You need to talk to that man over there. Come on, I’ll go with you.” Unfortunately, before we could get to him her mother arrived to take her home. I never saw her again.

I knew I could have led her to salvation myself, but I had felt timid and somehow inadequate with the Youth Minister right there. The lesson I learned from this is that I must not hesitate under any circumstances, and I resolved to be bolder.

One evening a woman I barely knew called me to relay a message. Then she started talking about all of her health problems. She told me that her parents and grandparents all died in their late fifties and she was already fifty herself. She was sure she didn’t have many years left. I knew she wasn’t saved. In the past she had said that she wasn’t a Christian and she believed that there are many ways to get to heaven. I was ready to witness to her, but I didn’t want to offend her. I was afraid that if I offended her she wouldn’t listen to what I had to say. Then my mind went blank. I didn’t say anything, the conversation ended, and she hung up. I tried to make another opportunity to talk to her, but it didn’t happen.

I thought about the first time I blew it with someone facing death. I thought about how I had rehearsed in my mind exactly what I needed to say and how confident I had been that the next time I met someone in that position I would be ready. But this lady was basically in that position, and I didn’t remember any of what I had rehearsed. There was a gap of a few years between the two opportunities, but I had never forgotten my client that died. Also, I knew my real hesitation was that I had felt timid and inadequate. I was shy about witnessing. Yet, I remembered the little girl and my resolve at that time to never hesitate; to be bold about witnessing. So, what went wrong this time? Why did I blow it again? What lesson did I need to learn from this experience? I didn’t know.

I don’t want you to think I was a total failure during that time. I went to church three times every week, I took sermon notes, some mornings I spent some time reading scriptures – if not, I would read a daily devotional, and I prayed every day. I had a reputation as a solid Christian woman. Many people came to me for advice and council, and I was always careful to give sound advice based upon scriptures. My failures were always with the most critical cases; the cases where some poor lost soul was at a crucial point and reaching out.

Now I want to tell you about my mother.

Mother was one of those incredible Christians who are always ready to give an answer for the hope that is within them. When she was employed there wasn’t a week that went by that she didn’t witness or minister to someone, and quite often more than one person. I always admired her for how well she handled those situations but I was frustrated by how often I didn’t handle them well. I knew she read her Bible and prayed every day, but I just figured she had a “knack” for it, and I didn’t.

For many years we lived too far apart for me to see my parents frequently, or even on a regular basis. So, I called them every Sunday afternoon. Sometimes, I talked to Dad a few minutes, but I always talked to Mother an hour or two. We talked until neither of us could think of anything else to say.

First, we talked about important things – how everybody’s doing and any events of the week. Then we talked about things that were more “distant” to me. This is when she would tell me all about people I didn’t know. This is when I found out who she witnessed or ministered to that week. Then we worked our way down to what would be considered trivial things.

The trivial things were things like new flowers that had bloomed along the gravel road where she took her morning walks, and the butterfly that landed on the windowsill by her chair while she was having her quiet time. And, when she told me these things she always said something like, “And when I saw it, I said thank-you Father for urging me to walk this morning when I didn’t really want to, so I could see your beautiful flowers” or, “for that little encouragement” She told me how God reminded her to check the food in the oven when she got busy and forgot it; and when she ran to see about it, it was ready and not burned. And, she told me, “and I said, “Oh, thank you Father for reminding me. What would I have done if I had let it burn?”

One day, sometime before I began studying the Bible with God – see Spirit Led Bible Study, during the trivial part of the conversation I thought, “Mother must pray a hundred times a day.” Then it hit me. I was praying every day, sometimes several times a day, but Mother was praying all day. She might not have been praying without ceasing, but she was whole lot closer to it than I was.

Praying is communicating with God. It can be formal – eyes closed, head bowed, hands clasped together; or it can be just talking to God. I know Mother prayed formal prayers every day, but mostly she just talked to God all through the day every day.

Now I want to tell you how changing my prayer habits impacted my life.

Those we choose to spend time with are the ones we bond with. As we continue spending time together, the deeper the bond grows. I discovered that applies to God, too. The more I talked to God throughout the day – much like I would talk to a friend, the closer I felt to Him.

Romans 8:15 – For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father.

Abba is an Aramaic word meaning father. In this verse father is translated from the Greek word pater. Pater is more formal than abba, which is more like daddy. Everyone is created by God, but not everyone is a child of God. Only those who have received the spirit of adoption can know God as Abba Father. Talking to God all day about even the trivial things helped me develop a deeper relationship with Him as my Abba Father.

Then one day I got a call from a woman I’d never met looking for information about homeschooling. We had a nice conversation, I answered all of her questions, and the next thing I knew she was pouring her heart out to me. As soon as she started I thought, “Oh Father, help me.” Then I just listened to her. When she finished telling me all about it, I heard myself saying all the right things in the kindest way. It wasn’t what she necessarily wanted to hear, but it was what she needed to hear. As soon as I hung up I prayed, “Thank you, Father! I would have never remembered all of that myself.” Suddenly, I understood so much. I knew why I had been failing. I had been learning the wrong lessons.

When I failed to witness to my client that was dying, I concluded that it was because I was not prepared. While it is important that we be prepared to witness, I suddenly understood that I had been prepared. I had been regular in church, paying attention during the sermons, and reading my Bible, or Christian devotional, every day. I had in my brain all the information that woman needed. So, being prepared wasn’t the lesson I needed to learn that day

When I failed with the little girl at Vacation Bible School, I knew I had been too timid, but resolving to be bold was not the answer.

Jeremiah 13:23 – Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?

A person who by nature tends to be timid cannot just decide to not be timid. They can work to overcome their timidity, but if you ask someone in that position they’ll tell you it’s always lurking beneath the surface. Again, I learned the wrong lesson.

When I failed with the lost woman that called me to relay a message and then shared with me her fears about dying, it was because I had not learned the right lesson in the past. So, what was the right lesson?

Proverbs 3:5 – Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own under-standing.

I had been leaning on my own understanding, which is to say that I had been trusting in myself to have the presence of mind, and muster the courage, to speak up. In some cases, I was trusting in my own ability to perceive where that person was in life – physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and the wisdom to know what that person needed to hear at that moment. And, whenever I failed, I was depending on myself to get it right the next time. What I really needed to do was trust in the Lord.

When I prayed, “Oh Father, help me”, I put that situation in His hands. When I just listened without trying to figure out what I should say, I left it in His hands. Then when the moment came for me to respond, He brought to my mind the words that woman needed to hear at that time, and He gave me the boldness to say them.

When she began pouring out her heart to me, I didn’t remember to pray. That was an instantaneous reaction. All those days of communicating all day with my Abba Father conditioned me, not only to instantly turn to Him, but also to trust Him enough to just wait and allow Him to use me to speak to her. I didn’t remind myself to be bold and speak up. It just happened. And, since then I have discovered that it works every time. God never lets me down

We’re in a spiritual battle. How much God is able to use you in His service depends, in part, on how much you trust Him, which depends on how well you know Him, which depends on how much time you spend with Him.

At the time that I was preparing to present this to the Ladies Auxiliary, I thought it only fair that I tell Mother that I was going to be talking about her. When I told her that I was going to encourage the ladies to start praying about everything all day she said, “Oh, I hope they’ll do it, because if they do they’ll find themselves on an amazing adventure!” From my own experience, I agree.

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD:

Relying on my Abba Father to speak through me solved my problem of sharing Jesus when someone opens up to me.

Sharing Jesus Without Fear by William Fay and Ralph Hodge changed my life as a witness for Christ when it’s up to me to broach the subject. It presents a simple, conversational approach for providing anyone, anywhere, at any time with the opportunity to be saved, without putting pressure on them, by allowing God to speak for Himself through His Word. It’s a non-controversial approach because it doesn’t involve me telling them what I believe and what’s wrong with what they believe. I highly recommend it.