Practicing God-Confidence

Hebrew 12: 1-2

Fear weakens a person.
FEAR : False Evidence Appearing Real.
Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is—German Proverb
It is difficult to have faith in God if we have low-confidence. We saw some of the results of having a lack of confidence: we always think about what others think about us and lose our true selves in the process; it reduces our ability to make deep quality relationships with other people; it is the source of laziness because we fear failure, so we are frozen with fear, doing nothing; it is the source of pride because we need to overcompensate and cover up for our insecurities.

There is fear of growing old, fear of failure at work at relationships, fear of rejection by others, fear of the unknown, fear of insufficient finances for the future, fear of losing your freedom, conflict with others, rejection by opposite sex or in a love relationship, fear of criticism, losing people’s respect etc. Any of these apply to you?
_ Living in fear means living with a constant underlying tension that leads to broken health.
_ When we have fear, we seldom feel the confidence to try something new; we tend to stick to old habits and familiar ways.
_ In addition, fear leads to condemnation and destroys your sense of self over time.
_ In my own personal observation, when Christians fear, it comes out in the most frightening way: you see it in the form of religious fanaticism or Phariseeism. It also happens to parents, when parents sense that they are losing the child, they tighten the rules—they become more dogmatic and fall back on rules and laws. Often when Christians become insecure or fearful of losing control, they become Pharisees where everything is simply black and white. I believe that Pharisee thinking is a result of fear.

Many of us live our lives out of fear. We fall back on the security of our fears, so we live only by Pharisical rules and laws.
What I want to do now is quickly revisit and review what we were talking about last week on God-confidence and extend ways for us to practice God-confidence.

1 Cor. 10:12 (Msg)
Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.
Or Faith is the bird that sings, when the dawn is still dark.

Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)
So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. Tolkien
Leap into God’s promises by faith and you will see a new road that you never saw before. Remember that it is not having faith in faith, but it is faith in the promises of God. If God promises something to you in the Bible and there are over 7000 of them, you can take a leap of faith that He will answer you. The second component is that we need the God-confidence to keep our faith on fire. But having been a Christian for a long time now, reality tells me that it is easy to have God-confidence while we are excited, inspired with chicken skin. But our God-confidence begins to erode away over time. How to we realistically, practically, and Biblically keep our God-confidence alive in the long term? Especially when things are not working out the way we expect?
Now if you study the book of Hebrews carefully, Paul defines faith in chapter 11, and then he gives examples of people who demonstrate a life of faith, like Abraham who has so much God-confidence that he was willing to kill his son Isaac; and Moses and other heroes. Now he comes to chapter 12

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. [2] We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish...
Look at v. 1b: “And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”
We are in a race. In every race, it is easy to start well. It is easy to have faith after listening to a sermon. It is easy to say then that you really trust God.

So how do we keep your God-confidence from backsliding away from God in our race? Look at v.2: “We do this by keeping (focusing) our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish...”
Our God-confidence can only stay strong if we keep our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.
What has been consuming you lately with fear? Your finances, your future, your career, your uncertain plans, your past? I want you to practice this today: focus on Jesus, and then look at your fears and say—Jesus, I know you will help me sort out my career, my relationship etc.…I know I will be victorious…

Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Practice choosing your daily actions to reflect the God-confidence you have in Jesus.
Let your God-confidence show up in your lifestyle. Remember that without faith, it is impossible to please God. God is not impressed with how well you can talk or how much you know. The question is…are you going to practice what you know? God does not want you to be a good talker only. Let your God-confidence come out in your actions.
What issues are you facing in your life today? Some of you know that you need to get your life in order—you have been delaying when you know God has spoken in your spirit—some of you need to repent and come back to Jesus; some of you have been paralyzed and by fear and you want to face your future with God-confidence…It is time to stop living by fear…

Isaiah 8:13 (NLT)
Do not fear anything except the Lord Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else.