Tag Archives: confidence

by

Peace and Confidence

a21ed8a74f6484b6441b3bd27d360518[1]

John 14:27 (NIV), “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Our peace and confidence do not depend on our performance. It all depends on Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

John 14:27 (NLT), “I am leaving you with a gift–peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

Our confidence does not depend on us, the government, our boss, our Pastor, our spouse, or the Church. It is OK to be confident in people but we can’t depend on them as our source of confidence and peace. They will all at one time or another fall short of our expectations or what we need done in our lives. When all those people and things fail us our confidence in the Father still remains. No matter what things may look like, we can be confident that He is working things out for our good. If we are truly His and we aren’t just practicing religion, then His promises are “Yes and Amen.” God alone is faithful enough to put all of our trust, to depend on for our peace. Jesus said it was a gift! We don’t earn a gift; it is given out of love.

Philippians 1:6 (NASB), “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

He won’t leave you high and dry. He’s the one who chose you. He is the one who wooed you and gave you that new heart. Surely He will finish all of the things He started.

Jesus was crucified-He rose from the dead-He took the keys to death and Hell-He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. He did it! It’s a done deal.

Be confident in that!

by

Watch and Pray

watch[1]

Right after the last Passover meal with his disciples where he tells them to eat his body and to drink his blood, they go to the Mount of Olives. Jesus is about to spend His “hour in the flesh” and he asks a few of His disciples to watch and pray.

Mark 14:37-38 (NIV), “And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

When we remember his blood, shed for us in love, when we remember his broken body that purchased our healing, it helps us to watch and pray. It keeps us from temptation. We aren’t so ready to believe the lies of the enemy. When he tries to tell us that God doesn’t really love us, or that we aren’t worthy, we can remember the love that compelled the Father to give His son, or the great love that held Jesus on that cross. We don’t want what He did to have been in vain. He did so much for us so that we could live a transformed life. Shouldn’t we be diligent then to watch and pray? Yes, our flesh is week, but our spirits are willing.

Those words, “keep watching and praying” are just as important for us today as they were for the disciples that went with Jesus to the garden. Our flesh is still week. Satan’s desire is still to “sift us like wheat.” When we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, when we “set our faces like flint,” we can withstand every temptation.

I Corinthians 10:13 (NIV), “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Today let’s purpose to remember His blood, the atoning blood that took away all of our sins, those from our past, those for our present, and those in our future. They are all gone. And let us remember His stripes, the lesions from the thorns, the holes in his hands and feet, and that cut from the spear. Those wounds that He “received in the house of his friends” and let us accept all the redemptive gifts that they purchased for us.

Father, we thank you for your perfect plan of redemption. We choose to remember and accept the finished work of Your Son, Jesus Christ and to cherish His great act of love in our hearts.