Confidence in God: The Key to Courageous Christian Living

Summary

True Christian confidence comes from trusting God rather than relying on human strength. Examples from athletics, fishing, and biblical figures like Hezekiah and Paul show that confidence rooted in God strengthens believers, influences others, and empowers ministry. Because of Christ’s work, believers can approach God boldly, live with quiet assurance, and faithfully participate in His purposes with Spirit-generated confidence.

Confidence in Athletic Performance

Confidence often separates winners and losers in athletics. Under pressure, athletes who trust in their training and preparation and shift their minds into neutral perform much better than those who think too much about their technique. Muscle memory takes them higher, farther, and faster than overthinking every minute detail.

Lessons From a Fishing Trip

Confidence even makes a difference in fishing, where many think good or bad luck is the deciding factor. In the 1990s, I led a group of men on a fishing trip to Hay Bay, a bay of Lake Ontario.

One man who went was an accomplished coach and athlete who had competed in the World Masters Championships in track and field. He knew the importance of confidence in sports. He was my fishing partner one afternoon. By that time in the week, I had established an effective fishing pattern that daily brought as many as 50 walleyes to the boat.

The Power of Expectant Confidence

After he went with me that day, he remarked that the men in the other boats with whom he had fished hoped they would catch fish, but I knew I would catch fish. It was true. Any professional fisherman on the pro tour will tell you how important confidence is to their success.

Confidence in Christian Living

Confidence is equally important to Christian living, but it isn’t self-confidence. Hezekiah did not worry but placed his confidence in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrian army against all odds (2 Kings 18:19).

Hezekiah’s Faith Under Pressure

“Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God” (2 Kings 19:19 NIV).

He confidently believed that God was his helper and did not fear what the mere Assyrian army could do to him (Hebrews 13:6). Genuine confidence in God is Spirit-generated.

The Danger of Trusting Human Strength

By contrast, the Assyrian commander had can-do confidence in his military might.  The people of Israel unwisely trusted Egypt’s military prowess to protect them instead of Him (Ezekiel 29:16), which greatly irritated Him.

The Lord pronounced as cursed those who foolishly trust in man’s capabilities but as blessed those who trust and put their confidence in Him (Jeremiah 17:7).

Confidence That Influences Others

Hezekiah’s confidence was communicable. The people became more confident because of His confidence in God (2 Chronicles 32:8). Your confidence in God influences others to trust in Him, who in turn impact still others to do the same. Unbelievers also recognize when an against-all-odds work is done with God’s help (Nehemiah 6:16).

The Only Reliable Foundation for Confidence

Contrary to Eliphaz’s words to Job, Christians dare not put their confidence and confident expectations in such a flimsy foundation as their own piety and blameless ways (Job 4:6) because both are decidedly inferior building materials. Rather, as the Psalmist wrote, the Lord is the only reliable basis for hope and confidence (Psalm 71:5).

Isaiah connects an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the new life He brings to quietness and confidence in His people, not a confidence in human might or resources but in God and what He can do (Isaiah 32:17).

Spirit-Given Confidence in God

The Apostle Paul had every reason to put confidence in himself (Philippians 3:4) because of his prodigious spiritual achievements, but he didn’t (Philippians 3:3).

He had Spirit-breathed self-confidence through Christ before God. He didn’t trust in his own natural abilities, but in the competence that the Spirit of God had bestowed to carry out the ministry which God assigned. It manifests today as a quiet confidence that God is using us in at least some small way to carry out His great plan (2 Corinthians 3:4).

Trusting and expressing complete confidence in other believers to live as they ought motivates them to do their best so as not to betray that trust (2 Corinthians 7:16).

Because Jesus has reconciled us to the Father by his death in our place, burial, and resurrection, we can by grace through faith approach God freely and confidently (Ephesians 3:12). We may confidently enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19) into God’s very presence because of our confident hope and assurance of the yet unseen, which the Bible calls faith (Hebrews 11:1). Obedience to God (1 John 3:21) and love as a lifestyle (1 John 4:17) evidence that this confidence is legitimate.

We have a heavenly calling to be part of God’s house if we hold firmly to the confidence and hope the Holy Spirit generates within us and refuse to turn away from the living God (Hebrews 3:6). God will richly reward our confidence (Hebrews 10:35).

We should confidently approach God’s throne of grace to obtain His mercy and grace in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16), knowing that Jesus, our great high priest, empathizes with our weaknesses and God hears and grants everything we ask according to His will (1 John 5:14). Spiritual confidence is confidence in God from beginning to end.

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