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(I corrected several path problems on August 29, August 30, and September 1, including these selections: Which  Version?, Christmas, Images, Body of Christ Discovered, Hymn Midis, KJV Bible, and Spiritual Warfare.  Sorry for any problems; please let know if you find others. - Gary)

In Confidence

Scriptures: Romans 5:3-5; I Peter 1:6-7; I Samuel 13:8-14; I Samuel 15:24-26; I Samuel 17:34-37; I John 5:14-15

Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

1 Peter 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

1 Samuel 13:8 And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
9 And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.
10 And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.
11 And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;
12 Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.
13 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.
14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

1 Samuel 15:24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
26 And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.

1 Samuel 17:34 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
36 Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.

1John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Two of my best friends are optometrists. Both of them have years of training and experience behind them. When they deal with patients who need eyeglasses, they know what to do. They can perform tests to identify what kind of problems a patient has with his or her vision, then prescribe lenses to address the problem. Within the area of their expertise, they are extremely competent and confident. Both of them, though, understand there are limits to what they can do to help someone see better. Eyeglasses won't give sight to the blind, and some vision problems are not correctable without surgery. In my case, glasses help me read, but no glasses I'm aware of, short of binoculars, will help me see well at a distance.

Neither of these fine men is a surgeon, and neither can treat illnesses of parts of the body other than the eyes. They understand and accept their limitations, just as they understand the things that they can do. In this age, it is possible for a person to know a lot about one thing, or a little about everything, but not to know a lot about everything. Confidence in doing a job or carrying out a task requires both knowledge and the wisdom to recognize the limits of our knowledge and ability. In my own job, I am quite at ease in adjudicating a Federal Black Lung claim, but I have no business practicing law.

In some ways, serving the Lord is the same. God makes use of the talents and abilities we have, and uses us to the extent we can be used, based on our spiritual maturity. At a certain point, however, the analogy breaks down. God doesn't have our limitations; his resources are boundless. If he puts a call on our lives that requires abilities and resources we don't have, he is more than able to make up the difference. The world calls on us to be self-reliant, or self-confident; God calls us to have faith in him.

Our Lord Jesus used twelve very ordinary men to transform the world, and start a church that now stretches around the globe. The Lord used a young shepherd boy to defeat the mightiest warrior the enemy could send against Israel. He used Gideon and three hundred men to rout an army of tens of thousands. In every case, the confidence these men had was in God, not in their own abilities. Mighty Samson fell because of his pride in his own strength. Saul lost the throne because he thought he was as fit to offer sacrifices that he should have left to Samuel, and because he thought his own wisdom surpassed God's when it came to leading his men.

Our confidence in serving God, then, isn't based on our own abilities or knowledge alone, but in trust in God's abilities and knowledge. That said, where does that kind of trust or faith come from? In part, it comes from taking God at his Word, believing that he will do what he says he will do. Mostly, though, it comes from our own experience in trusting God. He doesn't test us beyond our limits; when our faith is weak, he sends easy tests our way. As we grow stronger in faith, the trials become harder, too. Using our faith is somewhat like using a muscle; if unused, it atrophies. If put to consistent use, it gradually grows stronger. That's the principle behind bodybuilding, and behind faith-building.

God doesn't make trials come our way, but he allows them to come for our benefit. If life were just a succession of triumphs, and always brought instant gratification, we would have no reason to trust God. People who achieve their goals too soon, or too easily, have nothing left to strive for, and often nothing left to live for. To paraphrase Romans 5:3-5; tribulations, or troubles, result in patience, and patience in the end leads to hope. Hope, in the sense it is used in the New Testament, means the confident expectation that something promised will come to pass. Peter speaks of a similar connection between our trials as Christians and the strengthening of our faith (I Peter 1:6-7).

But, as with secular things, part of our confidence lies in understanding our limits, the limit that God himself has set. Courage stops short of foolhardiness; running the race stops short of running ahead of God. In order to have confidence in the Lord, we must first understand what he requires of us, and what the limits of obedience are. Doing something good in disobedience to God is not good; it is sin. Jonah learned this lesson the hard way, just as Saul did.

Seek the Lord's leading and direction in everything you do. If you don't feel a prompting in your spirit that something is right, it probably isn't. If you must, put out a fleece, like Gideon, but at its root this is an expression of unbelief and lack of trust. Spiritual confidence isn't something we find or develop within ourselves; it comes from God. It comes hard, through a lifetime of trusting the Lord through trials, great and small.

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