Confidence

Yesterday my husband, Corey shared a verse with me that had really spoken to him and we decided to make that a memory verse for both of us.  The verse is Jeremiah 17:7.  Below is that verse in several different versions of the Bible.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him." (NIV)

“ Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD."  (NKJV)

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence." (NLT)

Then this morning I was studying, Session 3 - Day 4 of NOGS (No Other Gods) for Tuesday Morning Bible Study and the author was asking "What do you put your confidence in?".  How appropriate for what we were already meditating on!  God wants us to put our confidence in him, not in everything else.

So I decided to look up the word "confidence".  What does it mean?

a: a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances    

b: faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way

I know that putting our confidence solely in God instead of those things (false gods) that we are used to can be scary.  Also, in this section of the book "No Other Gods", we are reading 2 Chronicles 31 & 32.  I will admit that I am definitely feeling like King Hezekiah right now.  At the end of Chapter 31 in verse 20 & 21, Hezekiah is following God and then in the absolute next verse the scriptures talk about how a rival king is planning to attack and looking to take over.  Here is verse 20 &21.

2 Chronicles 31:20-21 - This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God.  In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.

I know that because we have made up our minds to totally surrender areas of our lives that have been controlling us and put our total confidence in the Lord that we are going to be attacked.  Here is the next verse.

2 Chronicles 32:1 - After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. 

We are going to continue to put our trust and confidence in our Lord because we know that he is on our side and he is watching out for us and we must surrender every area of our lives to him.  Another scripture that really speaks to me and I have been meditating on recently is Daniel 3:16-18 which is below.

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

What faith and trust in God!!!!  My prayer is that we will have faith like this.  These men of God believed that God could save them from the fiery furnace but even if he didn't save them, they stood on the fact that he could have saved them.  How many of us believe that God can save us from our circumstances and give us victory but even if he doesn't, we know that he can!  Stand on that promise, we are!!!!!