Abba Challenge

-


My SIL phoned me yesterday telling me that she was going to take a challenge for the month of March. Not to abstain from a certain food or television program, but to incorporate a spiritual practice into her daily life. In "The Furious Longing of God", Manning tells of a meeting with a 78 year old nun after a retreat where he spoke on experiencing God as Father. The nun shared how she suffered sexual abuse by her father as a child and now lived with self-hatred and struggled to experience God's love and to see Him as Father. Manning instructed her to pray every morning for 30 days this phrase "Abba, I belong to You". Each day she was to say the phrase, repeating it slowly, inhaling "Abba", exhaling "I" and so on with each word.

After 30 days of praying this phrase daily she returned to Manning a changed woman. She expressed how for the first time in her life she knew the love of the Father and now understood the peace He alone can bring. The phrase brought healing balm to her wounded heart. No longer "just words", she experienced the Truth they were proclaiming.

This is the challenge my SIL is undertaking. I am going to join her in this. Upon waking this morning I began my day in my field (see earlier post), met Jesus there and spoke this phrase while He wrapped me in a bear hug. What a great way to start the day!

I wonder what the next 30 days will hold? Why not take the challenge too? I expect you will be amazed by the love of your Abba for you!! Let me know what happens!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April 18, 1984

-
Image
I awake in a bit of a fog, only slightly aware of the telephone ringing.  We got in late last night.  Long past our bedtime.  I can hear my father in the kitchen, his muffled conversation floating upstairs to my room.  It's just before 8.  We've slept in.  I'll have to rush to get ready for school this morning.  My father slowly climbs the stairs and I turn to see him enter my bedroom.  He is tired and carries a strange expression on his face.  He reaches my bedside and takes a seat.  He isn't looking at me, but out my bedroom window to the hillside and winding road.  When he faces me again tears have formed in his eyes.  He covers my hand with his and tells me my mother is gone.  His words get lost in a sudden release of grief.  I turn my head into my pillow, tears flowing.  I'm not completely certain of what he's said, I'm hoping I've misunderstood, but know I have not.  He sits for awhile on my bed and we both silently weep.  Without a word h
Read more

Twenty Seven Years

-
Image
My first birthday Normally I see this day coming and anticipate it. Today it caught me by surprise. I love this picture of her, although I can't remember her this way. When I remember her last she looked so very different. I have a picture that was taken a few months before she passed away, but I like this one better. Funny, this picture was taken roughly 10 years before she died. I think I need to come back and post this later, it's still early in the day and I need to make it through before I land in a heap thinking about her..... I'm so thankful for my Mom. For the memories I have of her. I think my favourite memory is from when I was 7, 8 or 9, I'm not really sure. Jamie and I had returned to New Glasgow for a weekend to visit friends we had left behind when we moved. I don't know that I was ever away from her. I do remember vividly Saturday night, I was so lonesome for her. There was a snow storm raging outside and I was sure I would never get back home. Thing
Read more

Two kinds of good bye

-
Image
We are saying good-bye. Packing up our little family. Putting familiar things into cardboard boxes. Sealing them shut with nasty packing tape. Dreading the thought of tearing through that plastic frustration to get our stuff out again. Our life is a bit upside down. The house looks like it's been ransacked by a clumsy burglar who was uncertain of what he should take and what he should leave. Odd combinations of things sit in a pile waiting to be put in a proper place. Normal household chores have been put on hold while we wade through the disjointed contents of our homey house. This saying good bye is somewhat easy in the grand scheme of things. We have control over our going. We get to choose where we'll live, what schools our children will attend, what side of town we'll live on. We can even decide what furniture gets to come with us and what item will be written up in a hastily posted ad on kijiji. We get to leave as a family. Our physical home displaced, if only
Read more