The Father's Heart

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 John 2 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin… (1 John 2:1, NASB)

I am writing to you…

because your sins are forgiven you, for His name’s sake…

because you know Him who has been from the beginning…

because you are strong…

the word of God abides in you…

you have overcome the evil one…

because you know the Father. (1 John 2:14, NASB)

REFLECTIONS:
As I read 1 John 2, I am overwhelmed by the overtone of a Father’s heart.  This observation alone is evidence to me of the work of the Holy Spirit since I didn’t grow up knowing a father’s love as it was intended to be.  “My little children,” is how we start the chapter.  We see this term used here and in verse 12, “little children… your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.”  It is the word tekníon, which means someone deeply loved (endeared).  YOU, are deeply loved and endeared.  “We have an Advocate with the Father…”  Isn’t it interesting the word used here is Father instead of God; Father, patér—One who imparts life and is committed to it.   Our Jesus approaches our Father on our behalf when we mess up.  Unlike so many of our father-figures, God is committed to us, He is our Father even if we sin and break our fellowship with Him, His relationship to us as our Father cannot be broken.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  It is our Father who has John remind us of His love, providing us with hope in the form of our Advocate, Intercessor, and Comforter right at the beginning of this chapter.  

Father God’s heart continues to manifest through John as he moves from the reassurance of love and hope, into evidences of a true child of God, acknowledging our different stages of growth.  A good Father see’s potential in their children that they often cannot see themselves, and challenges them to reach it.  What has our Father challenged us with in this chapter?  We are to abide, obey, stay and wait in Christ, the Father, the light, the word, and the Holy Spirit.  The evidence or fruit of doing this is a life that is conducted and walked out like Jesus.  A challenge is to summon to action, effort, or use; stimulate.  I don’t know about you, but I’m not always receptive to being summoned to action or effort, but it wouldn’t be a challenge if it were easy.  Our Father understands our process of growth better than we do, and acknowledges these different stages in verses 13-14.  We see John addressing those who are mature believers, having walked with God, having known Him, and to those who are young, emphasizing a time of conflict and battle, a period of having learned the secret to overcoming the foe, and speaking to children, paidion—a younger child under training, perhaps not knowing much, but knowing the Father.  Our Father challenges us, He knows us, loves us, and wants more for us.

Now the warning: no matter how tempting, or pleasurable, or beautiful, or for how much it has to offer, DO NOT love or long for the world.  We are warned because it is a danger to us.  I hear Him saying, “Son, daughter, do not allow the desires and passions of your self-centered human nature rule your decisions and direction.”  It doesn’t always take some blatant sin to take our focus off living for eternity, sometimes all we need is a good distraction.  Verse 17, “The world is passing away, and also it’s lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”  We are also warned of deceivers, liars, those who deny Jesus as the Christ…God will reveal them as they are.  We don’t have to fear deceit when we are near and under our Father’s arms of protection.  So stay close brothers and sisters.  “And now little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”   Let us be sons and daughters that bring pleasure and honor to our Father, knowing, waiting, and preparing to see Him face to face.


APPLICATION:
Eminence in the things of the Spirit demands a devotion to these things more complete than most of us are willing to give.  The amount of loafing practiced by the average Christian in spiritual things would ruin a concert pianist if he allowed himself to do the same thing in the field of music.  The nation whose soldiers were as soft and undisciplined as the soldiers of the churches would be conquered by the first enemy that attacked it.  Triumphs are not won by men in easy chairs.  Success is costly.  We Travel an Appointed Way, page 26.


PRAYER:
Lord, we thank you that the challenges you give us are wrapped up in the love of a perfect Father.  Help us to truly know that love by correcting any misguided understandings based on worldly experiences.  Thank you for the patience and care you handle us with while you continually summon us to action, drawing out of us what we are meant to be.  We pray you would help set our eyes upon the eternal, and that we would rise up, on a daily basis, in response to your loving call.  We desire to live in triumph over our fleshly nature and truly be your evidence to the world around.  Thank you Father.


WHO AM I?
I am Nicole Robinson.  Pleasantries aside, you’ve already picked up on the fact that I didn’t have a good Father figure growing up.  What you don’t know is that I’m the product of a rape and the stepfather I did have was abusive.   I share that, because I know there is a lot of brokenness in many of us, and I also know that there are times of such weariness in dealing with the messiness of “us.”  I am living proof the Lord is committed to you, to me, to his children.  He transformed a person who once completely believed she was unlovable to one who stands in, walks in, messes up in and is daily reassured in knowing and receiving the vastness of her Father’s love.   We are cherished, and He is committed to imparting life to us.