Confession and Relationship

Author: Joseph Date: May 17, 2020

“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men I will also confess Him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33)

Our relationship to God is precisely that: a relationship. God calls us by His own will. We respond to God by giving Him our faith and trusting in Him and then we live our lives as redeemed people, giving our devotion to Him and His will for our lives.

We commune with God and become transformed in our relationship. When we sin, He extends mercy and offers us repentance, just as He has always done for His people throughout history. When we obey Him and seek His will, we find our lives more meaningful, more full of life itself, and we eagerly cling to Him as we walk where He leads us. It’s a wonderful, one-of-a-kind relationship that God has with us as His people.

When those that do not know God and who love evil begin to persecute us for our relationship with God, our relationship with God is tested. If our trust and love for Him is firmly established, we will be able to resist outside oppression and boldly confess that He is our God and our faith is in Him alone. We have no reason to fear their oppression and much less reason to believe that they can separate us from Him as long as our relationship is firmly established and we are willing to hold onto it faithfully.

What if our faith is not strong? Or what if we begin to fear mankind more than we trust in God? The test of our relationship with God then becomes a breaking point. If we cannot fully entrust God and confess Him before others then we cannot honestly say that our faith was ever firmly established in Him. If the bond of a relationship is easily shaken, then the bond has always been weak. Do not misunderstand; God is always faithful. It is not a lack of strength in His commitment that we are able to fall away but, rather, a lack of our own trust and love in Him.

If we are in relationship with God, the Creator of all, the only Lord God Who is eternal, almighty, and all-powerful and we truly believe that He is who He says He is, then we have no reason to break our faith in Him. We have no reason to fear our oppressors. Even death has no power over Him. How much less power does any man have over Him. Man has no power over God. Knowing these things, if we deny God out of our fear of man, we have not just rejected Him in the moment, we have rejected who He is and our relationship with Him. Rejection destroys a relationship.

The opposite is also true. When we confess God and affirm before others our relationship with Him, we make our faith and our relationship stronger. We affirm not only our relationship, but we also affirm who He is and testify before others that He is the Lord, Creator of all, power, Almighty God, and that He alone has authority over our lives. When we proclaim Him before others that desire for us to reject Him, we proclaim that He, and not they, has the greater authority.

Look again at the Scripture passage that was mentioned before. Yeshua says He will confess before the Father, on our behalf, His relationship with us if we are faithful to do the same before men. When we entrust God completely and confess Him before others we build up our eternal relationship with Him that no one and nothing can separate. God Himself will establish our eternal destiny to commune with Him if we are willing, in this life, to confess Him before men.

Do you see how amazing a relationship with God truly is? If we are able to let go of our fear of man and place our trust entirely in God, we can have a relationship like none else on this earth.

If you have denied God before men, do not lose hope. You are still alive and you still have time to repent. Seek God’s forgiveness and be willing, when the opportunity arises, to confess Him before others. The relationship may have been broken, but it can be healed.

If you are afraid and lack strength in your ability to stand before others and confess your relationship with God, remember that He is holding on stronger than you are and that even if you are persecuted, He has the greater authority and power. He will never forsake you.

Matthew 10:32-33

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB). www.lockman.org