God Speaking

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.”

(Jeremiah 17: 7)

September in North America is the beginning of the new scholastic year and thousands of would be scholars ranging from kindergarteners to university students are preparing to stretch their knowledge in all sorts of areas. Many are seeing this as an exciting challenge, but many more are not so sure and anxiety and perhaps trepidation are prominent in their minds. They are not so confident this next step will fill them with joy. I saw a sweet little video about parents who had just left their little ones at kindergarten for the first time, and instead of leaving the playground, were peering through the classroom window unable to leave their loved ones.  They certainly were not filled with confidence that their beloved children would cope without them.

Our sermon (http://www.nsac.bc.ca/media/2016-09-04-confidence-in-christ) on Sunday was entitled “Confidence in Christ” and it was both challenging and comforting at the same time, and started with this question.

Who and what do we place our confidence in?

We can turn to the world for advice and there are thousands of seminars/ courses/ motivational speakers all willing to help us. It is interesting to see how the main thrust of most of them have, is encouraging people to have confidence in themselves.  Often the mantra is; you can do it! 

Scripture also encourages us to hold fast to these words but with a totally different meaning, yes we can do it, but not relying on our own strength.  We need to place our confidence squarely in front of our Heavenly Father drawing our strength from him.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4: 16)

God’s word offers us a solid rock to stand on, a loving spirit to walk beside us, arms to lift us up when we fall, guidance when we take that first step on a new path, encouragement when our confidence begins to wane. His words constantly tell us we are worthy. As children of his we don’t have to doubt ourselves. We don’t need to frantically psych ourselves us up, learning new tricks to appear we have it all together. The prophet Isaiah has a beautiful way of saying all this;

“The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” (Isaiah 32: 17)

Our sermon was also stressing that we have to constantly be filled with this confidence and the renewing of it occurs when we come into the presence of the Lord, speaking to him in prayer, reading his word, worshipping him, meeting with others in his family, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us. The writer of Hebrews implores us not to discard in any way this beautiful gift, to hang on to it and blessings will flow our way. This is a worthy verse to help us to do this.

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10: 35 – 36)