Think about something you don’t have a lot of confidence in. Maybe it’s your old alarm clock that more and more occasionally seems to forget its job. Perhaps it’s your car that seems to break down at the most inopportune moments. Could be a coworker who spends a little too long on lunch breaks. Almost certainly the government, in one way or another. Whatever your thing may be, think about why you’re not confident in that; what brings us to depend on these things, when they’re guaranteed to reach a breaking point and fail in some way at some point?
People are, by the broken nature brought about by the fall of man, imperfect. The things we create, the tools we use, the responsibilities we hold, the organizations we take part in; all of these things take the imperfections of the human hands that put them into place. This can likewise be true on a personal scale – we can be confident in our own talents and abilities, the experience and intelligence and hard work we’ve spent our lives building up. But even small mistakes can overturn all of these and bring serious consequences. So how can we, as imperfect people, be confident in our ability to do… well, anything?
The answer is, of course, where our confidence comes from. As Psalm 71:5 says, “You have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.” The accumulation of all disappointments that come from human things can be overwhelming – how uplifting and gratifying it is to have this one thing, in all our days, we will never lose confidence in! We can confide in our Lord 100% of the time, all of our days. This is where our confidence must come from – not in our own fragile nature, but in a righteous and rock-steady God. We can be confident that God will protect us and deliver us from evil when we come to Him.
In Phillipians, Paul describes his distrust in the flesh and where, in his trials and jailing, his confidence comes from. Phillipians 3:3 says: “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh”, then goes on to say in the same verses 8-9: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order than I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
We Christians know there is nothing we could own or do that could surpass Christ. We know that salvation does not come from the things we own, or the groups we join, or our own rule-abidance, but in a God who pours out His righteousness and love. When we suffer, when we are persecuted for our faith, when our lives seem to start crumbling around us – know the Lord will be there always. Abide in the comfort and confidence today of knowing a righteous God will always have your back. You will always be able to run to Him, of that you can be sure. As Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”