God is {Abba}

^{This is part my blogging series "Challenge Filled February"
I'll be blogging every day about who God is
To start from the beginning click HERE}

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. ⁹ The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own,^[a] and his own people^[b] did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:6-13

7 minutes on the clock... and GO!

Two phrases stick out to me today.

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to BEAR WITNESS about the light."

I spent all last summer studying the life of John the Baptist with the students who came to Dayton on their mission trips. Two and a half months of studying the same five passages over and over again. Sounds redundant, but it was

AWESOME!

Students learn the same thing in different ways - so each week even though we were reading the same passages those students helped me see something new. 

One that that continually came up though, was that John KNEW his role

He was the one who came before

He was the one making the way

He was the one bearing witness about the light

And this morning this passage reminded me that I can hold that same confidence in my role - because I also am a witness to the Light

And where does this confidence come from?
It comes from my Father,

my Papa

my Abba,

because God gave me the right to become his Child.

I love my Bible because it has lots of space to take notes in it, but it also has cross-references. I spent some time this morning rooting thought the cross-referenced verses linked with verse 13.

Flip open that Bible and read some of these:

Jn 3:6, Tit 3:5, Jas 1:18, 1 Pe 1:23, 1 Jn 3:9;4:7

and this one:

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

1 John 5:1-5

In my struggles of selfishness and discontentment that I've been battling recently these passages encouraged me in two ways -

That as a child of God:

1) That obeying God (setting aside my selfishness) should not be a burden
2) That through God's power, the world has been overcome, and I'm a part of that because I believe.

What confidence do you have because God is Abba?