Confess to the Father

This morning I am wrapping up my concordance study of the word “father”. Over the course of that past couple of months I have learned much in the way of my Father in heaven and father in this world. Today is a reminder for me as to who to rely on with all.

“⁵The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” – Revelation 3:5 (ESV)

I have to rely on my Father. As we see the words of Jesus above, He confesses before God the Father. As He is our example, we should do the same. I have to remember that my confessions are for my Father as well.

As a small child the father is the one in the home who is the immediate protector. He is the patriarch and the one we hide behind when things are not as they should be. He is the one who holds us when we need comforting. He is the one who cheers for us when we are out there doing what we do. And he is the one who listens when we have something to say and/or confess. And then we grow up. Our father in this world is not always there with us and we turn to our Father in heaven to take over.

It is my Father in heaven that is our immediate protector. He is the patriarch and the one we hide behind when things are not as they should be. He is the one who holds us when we need comforting. He is the one who cheers for us when we are out there doing what we do. And he is the one who listens when we have something to say and/or confess.

I have my Father to care for me. In order for that, I have to be here in confession with Him. I have to give it all to Him and know that He will take care of it all. I may not know or like the way He cares for it, but I have to know that He is and is doing so for me in line with His will for me and the spreading of the gospel. It is only up to me to come to Him and confess that which needs confessing and allow Him to love me and put things in motion for His glory.

Who are you confessing to? Are you just holding it all in or looking for someone/someplace to let it out? What if you were to give it all to our Father and allow Him to care for it all?

Earthly Fathers in Christ

“¹⁴I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” – 1 Corinthians 4:14-15 (ESV)

See the writing of Paul to the Church at Corinth. He is letting them know that he is their father in Christ here in this world.

We all have those earthly fathers in Christ that can guide us when we are in need. This father may be our birth fathers or could be a surrogate much like Paul was to the Corinthians. This father is not a/the replacement for God the Father, rather he is someone who is there in the flesh to stand with you as you petition God the Father.

Even as God the Father is with me always, I am still human and find comfort in having someone physically available to walk with. It is a less than fulfilling to be alone, even alone in Christ. Yes, He fulfills my every need, yet there is something to having someone that will stand with me so that when I am not hearing the Father, I can hear my father who may be hearing from God the Father with/for me.

Paul was not the lord over the people and that he made very clear. He was an earthly father/teacher in the name of Christ to the people. He was the voice of Christ to the authority to speak the gospel to them all the while giving us the example of how to approach the gospel ourselves. We are to stand to the gospel yes, yet we are to stand in peace as Paul did and accept the punishment of man for the upholding of the law of God.

“¹⁶I urge you, then, be imitators of me. ¹⁷That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.” – 1 Corinthians 4:16-17 (ESV)

I am reminded of a quick little video I saw once as relates to being an imitator of the father. In the video, there was a man walking through a restaurant. The man was dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase. Now that may not seem too unique, only as you looked behind the man, there was a small boy walking behind him. The boy was wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. Cute right? Looking at the video, I see the boy imitating his father. He may not have known all that there was to the goings on in the moment, yet he was being like his father, knowing that dad was doing something and he wanted to do it also.

We need to have that father to look to as an example to do something. We have to be careful as to who we look to, although a great place to find one is in the presence of God the Father. There are earthly fathers out there for each of us to lean on. Yes, God the Father is where we look for true guidance, but there are times when we may not hear Him and need someone next to us to relay the message coming from Him.

Who is your earthly father? Are you out there trying to go it alone? What if you were to seek out an earthly father in Christ to stand with you as you petition God the Father?

Don’t Forget Your Earthly Father

“³Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 19:3 (ESV)

This morning I was brought to the passage in Leviticus titled “The LORD is Holy” as I continue my study of the word “father”. Here the focus of the passage is on the holiness of the LORD and our work to keep that alive. And yet, there is a verse of the eight that references our earthly parents. We are to hold the LORD in esteem and still revere our earthly father for the position he is in thanks to God’s infinite wisdom.

God placed me with my father for a reason. I may not know that reason for all of my time here in this world and may not even have a continued relationship with him during this time, but he is my father for some reason that God will reveal in His time.

I will say that the relationship I have with my father in this world is one more in line with a friendship as opposed to a father/son relationship. And for me, that is okay. Again, I come back to the fact that the LORD place me with him for some reason and regardless of how things are going now, I have to revere my earthly father for the position he was placed in my life.

I know that not everyone has a cordial relationship with their father. In fact, I know that there are many with a relationship, if that is what you want to call it, that may not have been very wholesome and may have been down right adversarial, abusive, and/or violent. And that is the way it goes sometimes, even in the world that God has created in all its wonder. Yet, we have an earthly father and his position in our lives is one that God placed him in and we should honor that position.

Now, let me be clear here and not paint a picture of something that does not exist. I am not saying that each of us should seek out our earthly fathers and work to create a “fake” fatherly relationship. I am simply saying that our fathers here on earth are our fathers for a reason that we may not know and that we should revere the position they hold and not always look to revere the person that they are. The reality is that there are those that are just plain bad. But even those are deserving of love from us as Christians.

Easier said than done for sure, especially when they have hurt us badly. Yet, we are to love all peoples in this world and do our work to spread the gospel to them all, regardless of what they have done.

What is your view of your earthly father? Are you looking at them for the person they are? What if you viewed them for the position they hold and realize that it is indeed God that put them in that position and they are to be revered for that position?