Barbra Gentry-Pugh

The Heartbeat of Being a Confident Believer

May 5, 2024

“He had the confidence to live the way the Lord wanted him to live. He also got rid of the illegal places of worship and poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah in Judah.” 2 Chronicles 17:6 (GW)

^“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.” Psalms 118:8 (NLT)

^“Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot.” Proverbs 25:19 (NLT)

“Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” Proverbs 28:26

As a Believer in Christ, how is your confidence in the inerrant and authoritative Word of God? How do you as a Believer navigate life’s difficult questions, challenges, and uncertainties while maintaining confidence in your faith? How does your confidence in God impact your worldview? What encounters, or experiences in life that has helped shape your confidence in God and His faithfulness?

I really did not think much about my biblical worldview until I was in seminary, not fully understanding how much of an impact it had on my choices/decision-making, relationships, moral values, and response(s) to life. I began to think more about what aspirations or goals would deepen my confidence, nourish, and strengthen my faith!

The Word of God has a lot to say about confidence. The word confidence (or its close derivatives) is used 54 times in the King James Version and 60 times in the New International Version. The majority of uses center around trust in people, circumstances, or God.

Confidence is an interesting phenomenon that has many meanings. It is also a rather popular concept today. We are encouraged to be strong, bold, confident, and even self-confident. However, we must be careful because being confident can lead us down two paths. Pride is the ingredient that causes our confidence to become arrogant. An unhealthy self-confidence can lead to a cocky self-confidence, which results in false superiority and boasting (“I am the best”) or an attitude of arrogance. Also, there can be an attitude of arrogance vs self-confidence, especially in leadership. While the two may look similar they are very different. Arrogance is often linked to some type of comparison – comparing ourselves to someone else and, at times, someone who is admired. If we think we can do it ourselves, and when we stop seeking God’s help, these are the warning signs that confidence has turned to arrogance.

We can be confident in our abilities, confident that something will happen, confident about certain facts (including salvation), and confident in God’s promises. We can also take someone into confidence, which denotes a great deal of trust. But the question is, what we should be confident in? What should we be confident about? If not, why not?

We can be confident of God’s Divine Love Our confidence comes from our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are His Masterpiece, and the Psalmist in Psalm 139:17-18 expresses awe and wonder at the depth of God’s knowledge and attention towards us, and he says, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered. I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” God is our Father and our High Priest. Hebrews 4:16 reminds us that and through His intercession, we can boldly “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” The apostles in Acts 4:13 before the Sanhedrin displayed an assurance that amazed their adversaries, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Our Confidence Is Found In The Word of God?

Psalm 118:8. “It is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in people.”

Trust is related to the degree of trustworthiness. Confidence comes from knowing that God is completely trustworthy.

Psalm 27:1. The Lord is my light and my salvation-so why should I be afraid?

Confidence comes from knowing with certainty that we have salvation and that an eternal home awaits us.

1 John 3:1. See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children.

Confidence comes from knowing that God loves us unconditionally.

Our Confidence Grows Out of Our Reliance Upon God.

Remember – Self-sufficiency is an enemy when it causes us to believe we can always do what needs to be done in our own strength. An example of this in Scripture is found in Judges chapter 7. To prevent this attitude among Gideon’s soldiers, God reduced their number from thirty-two thousand to three hundred. With an army this small, there could be no doubt that victory was from God. The men could not take the credit. Like Gideon, we must recognize the danger of fighting in our own strength. We can be confident of victory only if we put our confidence in God and not ourselves. Proverbs 14:16 says that a righteous man departs from evil, but a fool rages in his confidence. In other words, to arrogantly assume that sin has no consequences is foolish confidence.

What Happens When You Lose Confidence in God?

When tragedy strikes, our first inclination is to wonder what happened to God. Nagging doubts cause us to question His care for us. But God’s love and care are endless. Losing confidence in that fact puts us in danger of falling away from HIM! Job 23:3. If only I knew where to find God, I would go to His throne and talk with Him there.
When you begin to doubt God, run to Him not away from Him. How else will you discover how much He really loves you? Matthew 11:28. “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Losing confidence in God may cause us to forfeit the eternal blessings He is preparing for us. John 14:1-3. Don’t be troubled – I am going to prepare a place for you and when everything is ready, I will come and get you.

HEART CHALLENGE: What aspirations or goals do you have for deepening your confident faith in the future? How would you articulate your aspirations for spiritual growth, learning, and service that can provide a vision for continuing to nurture and strengthen your faith?

A CONFIDENT HEART: When you walk with the Lord, the problems you face should not distress you. Because the answers rest in God, you can confidently seek His guidance. As you honor HIM, He will provide you with the understanding and direction for the tough questions and issues of life. Psalm chapter 16 is an excellent example of a positive confidence in God. David takes no credit for his own goodness, in verse 2, nor does he extol his own abilities. Instead, every good thing is ascribed to God in verse 6, and every hope is based on God’s character in verse 1. Because God is unchanging, David can confidently rest in hope, verse 9, despite any hardships he faces in life, verse 10!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for Your Word that provides us with clear instructions on how we can have confidence in You and Your Word. Thank You for being our Father, Savior, and High Priest and we are excited about being Your children, in the Precious, Powerful, and Preeminent name of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, Amen.