Grounded Faith

Confidence
CON'FIDENCE, n. [L. See Confide.]

1. A trusting, or reliance; an assurance of mind or firm belief in the integrity, stability or veracity of another, or in the truth and reality of a fact.


Heb 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.


I know, I just wrote on confidence yesterday but I can't get it out of my mind for some reason.


Faith equals confidence
Belief equals confidence
Trust equals confidence
Assurance equals confidence


When we think of having faith we think this---


Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.


Faith is hope in what?
Faith is the evidence of what not seen?


Can we say the following and it be true?

Confidence is having hope in Christ.
Confidence is having evidence of Christ and eternal life- not yet seen.


Sometimes when we tell someone to have faith we don't equate it with confidence, but confidence just sounds more firm, doesn't it? Belief even sounds less sure. Yet belief is having confidence, firmly believing! We are to have confidence. Our belief has to be firm… grounded…


Col 1:23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister


Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Eph 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.


Grounded.


Bring grounded is as firm as it gets, isn't it? I remember my father asking me this when I first started driving…


If you're skidding on the road and have the choice between hitting a telephone pole or a tree which one would you choose?


I don't quite remember what I said, but he then told me- always choose the telephone pole because a tree has deep roots and when you hit it, it's not going anywhere. On the other hand a telephone pole has no roots and can be knocked over easily (of course he was talking about the old wooden telephone poles, I’m not sure about these new cement/metal ones they're putting up here in Florida.)


The point to my relating this story is probably obvious. Being grounded, having our spiritual roots deep means we won't be moved, our confidence won't be shaken. This is how our lives have to be lived! We have to be grounded in our faith, we have to have confidence in our beliefs, we cannot be shaken away from our Lord and Savior though the devil will try His hardest to do all he can to shake us until our faith shatters and we have no more confidence left in our Savior.


When we are told to be confident we are really being told to believe in ourselves. When someone tells us to be confident we need to have that mean in our hearts that they are reminding us to be confident in God, not ourselves, and God will provide all we need one way or another. I say one way or another because what we imagine our need to be and what is really our need can be two different things. God is thinking on the level of eternity. If suffering is our lot in life now in order for us to find our faith in God, or for others to find their faith in God - then we have to trust that it will be enough. We DON'T have to understand, we have to believe and that belief has to be in God and God alone.


Confidence- the word needs to mean in our heart- deep faith in God, faith grounded and rooted as deeply as it can go all by the grace and mercy of our Savior!


Amen.