Eternal Confidence

Good morning, all!
Father, we know You hold all things in your hand, the economy, the government, the ups, and the downs. Let us only look to You, to trust You and find our only confidence in heaven above, Amen. You ever notice some days you have more confidence than others? How can we make it a little more permanent?

Job 31

24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, [Thou art] my confidence;
If I make finances my hope, or the finer things of life my confidence;

25 If I rejoiced because my wealth [was] great, and because mine hand had gotten much;
If I brag because I have great wealth and because I went out, I made mine;

26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking [in] brightness;
If I believe the sun and the moon revolve around me;

27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
And I secretly desire more, or I kiss my own hand because I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished.

28 This also [were] an iniquity [to be punished by] the judge: for I should have denied the God [that is] above.
I have completely missed the mark in life because I have denied God has any part of my life.

Bottom Line

In this chapter Job declares “IF” multiple times, what he’s saying is IF he finds confidence in anything except God it’s a sin…which is to say IF we believe we have ANYTHING without God we have woefully missed the mark. There is such a thing as a false sense of confidence, it’s when we trust in ourselves before we go to God.

[Phl 3:3 NLT] 3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort. We shouldn’t place any confidence in our efforts or works, they are of no value to God and really serve NO purpose. Think about it, take your best body of work or efforts…now, match that up with Calvary…how’s it holding up now?

1Co 1:30 RSV He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. We are NOTHING without Jesus, HE truly is the only source of YOUR life. We can truly live with all the confidence in the world when it’s placed in Christ, if not, we will likely have more ups and downs. Most of us if we’re honest place our confidence in our finances or our ability to earn a paycheck, but according to this passage we deny God when we think or live like that. Now I know that’s a hard one to break because the whole world is conditioned to think that I mean we have preached it, when we have prosperity, it is the blessings of God. But I don’t think we understand the message of the Cross when we think like that, they One that was lifted up on that Cross had NO prosperity from birth to death…born in a barn and buried in a borrowed tomb…that’s flat broke, yet HE is the very source of life NOT our finances. Our faith has to become more than believing God exist, it should become the only way we live and deny every worldly ambition if it blinds us to the power of the cross. The cross produced life, it is the gateway to a life of faith without it we only had the law…which as scripture declares made nothing perfect but brought us to a better hope and His name is Jesus. You know what happens when we live without faith?

Pro 25:19 NASB [Like] a bad tooth and an unsteady foot Is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble. When we put our confidence in a faithless life the words, we speak are painful and we live an unstable lifestyle, probably NOT going to be a good messenger of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe the more we live by faith the more confidence we have and the confidence we have is eternal, it has NO ups and downs because it is grounded in Christ Jesus our only source of life. You know how powerful that source is today?

[Heb 5:9 RSV] And being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. He is the gateway to ETERNAL salvation if we put our confidence in Him…trust nobody else.