Where Do You Place Your Confidence?

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Most of the time when modern westerners – and especially Americans – use the word “confidence,”  they are referring to a kind of self-assurance, or a trust in one’s own abilities, qualities, power, or connections. Unfortunately, the kind of confidence that we usually reference has a tendency to turn into arrogance. While there may be a place for it at some level in our lives, it’s interesting to note that the bible doesn’t speak of it very much, and when it does, it doesn’t seem to be spoken of in glowing terms. Consider, for instance, David’s reference to it.  In Psalm 16:2 he clearly describes how he possesses no good apart from God.  In the rest of his Psalm, he goes on to bolster that point. He makes certain for the reader that God is the source of his success, and not his own abilities.  This is reinforced by Paul in Philippians 3:1-21 where he strongly warns us not to put confidence in our flesh, and goes on to recite his past accomplishments, explaining how he had every reason to have self-confidence.  But he brings it full circle when he points out that whatever he had was of no value when compared to what God had to offer through his son, Jesus (Philippians 3:8). In fact, just like his fellow pre-conversion Jewish religious leaders, Paul’s confidence was so misplaced, that he was brutally persecuting Christians before God revealed to him who Jesus really was.

If you are a person inclined to honesty, it shouldn’t take you long to recognize how weak human self-confidence is. Honest people are able to see their frequent failures, and the fragility of even their best self-powered successes. But this recognition of our fragile abilities is not a problem, generally, for people of good faith.  People of good faith have placed their confidence -- that is their trust or faith -- in the most powerful entity in the universe.  People of faith understand that God is moving space, time, materials, and circumstances for their good, in order to make them like Jesus (Romans 8:28-29), and that if he is doing all of that, then how can anyone be against them, if he is for them (Romans 8:31)?  They understand with rightly placed confidence that the most powerful and unfailing agent in the universe will never leave them or forsake them (Hebrews 13:5-6), and that he is going to finish the good things that he started in them (Philippians 1:6). 

So if you want to have the kind of confidence that the bible seems to indicate is the best kind, ask yourself where you place your confidence.