In what do you place your confidence?
The athlete might put his confidence in his muscles, in his strength, his speed or agility.
The singer might put his confidence in his voice. The dancer, in her body.
The teacher might put his confidence in his intellect. The business woman in her ability to negotiate the markets.
The sailor might put his confidence in his boat, in his knowledge of the weather or good fishing spots, while the tea shop owner put his confidence in the continual trade of tourists!
All these things can be good, can help us feel secure that what we do today, we will continue to do tomorrow. But they are all temporary. Our bodies and minds may fail with ill health or age. The weather may change, the markets may be rocked by events across the globe. We place out confidence in these things at our risk, for the only certainty is that they won’t remain certain!
Certain Confidence
“But blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7
The only place to have certain confidence, is to set in in something eternal and unchanging. God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, is the most secure place for our confidence. King David knew this. He was a good looking man, strong and able – he could easily have put his confidence in his own self. But instead he trained himself from a young age to set his confidence in God –
“In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge…. be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; … deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of evil and cruel men. For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.”
Ps 71:1,3,4-5
When defending his flock of sheep from predators, David could have put confidence in himself – after all by his own strength he defeated the bear and the lion. But a life long habit of putting his confidence in God, leads him to declare that “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear…” 1 Sam 17:37 David knows that even his ability to wrestle with fierce animals comes from God!
Confidence in God defeats fear of man
Compare David’s reaction to the Philistine champion Goliath to Saul’s. Saul is an experienced fighter, a strong and able man. And yet in the face of Goliath’s challenge to one-on-one combat, he is frozen with fear. And as commander of the armies, his fear spreads, immobilizing the whole of his military force. He has placed his confidence in himself, and that confidence has fled in the face of a perceived stronger man!
But when David arrives, he displays no fear at all. Instead, he is incredulous that a Philistine should defy ‘the armies of the living God’. Goliath, tall and impressive as he is, does not faze David, for he has complete confidence that Goliath will be defeated. However his confidence does not reside in his own strength, nor the might of the army; his certainty rests in the fact that the Israelite army represents “the living God”.
“The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” 1 Sam 17:37
David is full of faith – because he has set his confidence in the right place. If you want to have freedom from fear, and to rest in a confidence that will not let you down nor wax and wane with the weather – the answer is, like David, to set your confidence in the Living God.
