Confidence
Week of July 26, 2009

“For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.”   ~ Proverbs 3:26 (NIV)

            When we walk in the ways of the Lord’s righteousness, He protects us.  He freely offers us His complete confidence through trusting Him.  Indeed, true confidence is a result of His righteousness operating through us (Is 32:17).

            Jeremiah 17:9-10 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?  I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

            Clearly, our hearts are not righteous in and of themselves.  We must have the cleansing power and mercy and intercession of our savior, Jesus, to be in right standing before the Father, to even have access to Him.    

Hebrews 10:19 tells us, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

Hebrews 4:16 tells that, because of Jesus Christ, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Consider David.  In Psalm 27, he knew that God was the stronghold of his life and that, even when war broke out against him, his heart would not fear but that he would declare confidence in the Lord (vss. 3, 13). 

Indeed, because of Jesus, we can exhort with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?” (Heb. 13:6).  We must know upon whom we base our confidence so that when we’re in the midst of battle we can remain steadfast, persevere and receive a divine reward (2 Ki. 18-19, 2 Ch. 32:10, Is. 36:4, He. 10: 35-36, 38).  This is the only way we can be confident leaders (2 Ch. 32:6-8).

            Moreover, God warns us to not place our confidence in deception (Ju. 9:26).    Philippians 3 tells us to put no confidence in frail flesh.  Jeremiah 49:31 tells us that when we are confident in our flesh, our comfort zones, our idols, we displease God, and we become vulnerable to attack from the enemy.  But if we submit to God, He will shift our confidence, our perspective to His sovereignty and set things right (Ez. 29:16). 

            Jeremiah 29: 11-14 tells us that when we choose to seek God with all of our heart, we will find Him and that He will draw us near.  Proverbs 3:32 tells us that “ . . . the Lord takes the upright into His confidence.”  The question is, “Will we cooperate by trusting Him intimately?”

Jeremiah 17:7 says, “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.”  And Ephesians 3:12 tells us “In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” 

            If you would like to operate more in God’s confidence, confess this to Him through Jesus Christ.  Then submit to His ways through obedience.  Pray that God’s confidence will be rooted and established in your heart so that you will be able to remain steadfast and soar.  Then simply believe.