Today I want to continue what we started on Friday. In that article, I addressed the fact that we are tempted to look at the disappointments, failures, and hardships of our lives and lose confidence in our hope that God has a better way for us to live as His people (see also: Hebrews 11:13-16). But that’s not the way we should think and act, especially when our lives fall apart.
Therefore, let’s continue our pursuit to building confidence in God when life falls apart so that we are able to keep running by faith toward the promises of God (see: Gebrews 12:1-2). May it be so!
Confidence is an Appropriate Reaction to Our Growing Understanding of God
In order for us to appropriately respond to our hardships with confidence that God is working and our hope is secure, we have to constantly grow in our understanding of our God. We do this through a lifestyle of prayer, Bible study, and conversations about God and His Word with those who are older and more mature than ourselves.
As we grow in knowledge, our confidence grows as well (see: Romans 5:3-5; James 1:4-5), as does our faith (see: Romans 12:3; 1 Peter 1:9). For example, as the Bible tells us in the book of Colossians, “If you have heard Christ, then you have known him” (Col. 3:3). The truth is, the closer we can get to knowing Christ, the greater our faith will become. This is why Paul says to Timothy, “I urge you … to strive for these things” (1 Tim. 4:7-9 ESV).
Why? Because he understands that if we grow in our knowledge, we will grow in our faith. And if we grow in our faith in a Triune God, our confidence will increase and our hope will strengthen.
In order for our hardships to be an opportunity to develop confident faith in our God (and not a stumbling block to our faith), we must run to God when life begins to fall apart – not away from Him.
Confidence is Built Through Steps of Obedience Not Knowledge and Insight
As we obey our Father, our confidence will grow because obedience gives us faith in God’s words. One writer said, “Faith is the obedience of your mind to the Word of God.” When we obey the Word of God, our knowledge will increase and our confidence will rise.
Confidence is built in the way of obedience – even if we do not see the results immediately (see: Luke 19:28-35; Acts 1:12; 8:40; 1 Tim. 1:12). In other words, when we walk by faith (that is – according to our faith in God) with God, our faith will grow and we will be built up in the Lord (see: Col. 4:2; 11:17-18). But if we do not believe God, and choose to look at our circumstances instead of our God, it may be easy for us to lose confidence in God (which is why we must “hold to the form of sound words” – 2 Tim. 1:13).
For this reason, when our lives fall apart, we need to make sure we are walking with Jesus in the way of obedience. The one thing you can do is not listen to the voice of God and turn to your own insight in order to discover the truth. For all mankind is “corrupt and only man’s wisdom does not lead to salvation” (1 Cor. 1:20). We must learn to walk according to God and not our own reason. This will increase our confidence.
The Trials of Life Will Shape Our Confidence
The truth is, the hard times, struggles, and setbacks of life will either shape our confidence in our God or they will shatter it altogether. There really isn’t anything in life that can’t be used to build up your confidence in God, because God is trustworthy in every situation. I like what John the Baptist told his disciples when he faced hardship (Matt. 11:2-3; Mark 6:20). He simply said, “We told you that everything would be fulfilled, and it was!”
When John said, “We told you, and it was”, he meant that they had expected such a response from Jesus, but the people didn’t believe. Even John’s disciples lost faith and left John after Jesus rejected him for John the Baptist. They couldn’t believe that Jesus could get so confused in how to respond to John. But God worked all things together to turn this into a turning point moment in the lives of John’s disciples and their confidence in God.
From what I have seen, God uses three main types of experiences to help us grow in our confidence in God.
I. God Uses Trials and Struggles to Shape Our Confidence
When we live in trials and struggles, we are given an opportunity to grow. When Jesus allowed his disciples to eat fish that could have killed them (see: Acts 27:36-37), He knew they would trust Him when things got tough (see: Matt. 10:28). God wants us to know He is faithful, so in the midst of suffering, we will call upon Him and He will answer us (Psalm 34:17). God does this not to judge us (in the sense of convicting us of a fault, sin, or wrong doing), but He does so to help shape our character to conform us to the likeness of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-29).
Why does our God do this? Because He knows we need it. We are always broken vessels on whom He can work. If we don’t stumble during our trials and struggles, then He cannot work in our lives to grow us in our faith and maturity in Him.
II. God Uses Setbacks to Shape Our Confidence
Sometimes we don’t know what we need in order to grow spiritually until we are in some kind of “trouble”. Now I know when I write that word there is usually a sense of dread in the hearts of many who read it. But the truth is, God uses “trouble” for good (Romans 8:28). Therefore, we should take heart because when setbacks occur, God will use that experience to shape and strengthen us. In other words, if God didn’t allow these setbacks in order to make us stronger, then we should never have to face them. But we do. So God must be using them to shape us.
This means God will show us that he is faithful even when we fail. Peter wrote, “Jesus, full of grace and truth, came to give life to his own. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him (John 14:6-7).
This is powerful stuff because God had just revealed something big to Peter (that he didn’t know before). John had been telling him for weeks that Jesus came to die for our sins (John 14:6); that God wanted Jesus to die, but it was Satan who made him do it (John 14:6-27); that Jesus was on a mission to die for our sins, but would be resurrected by God’s power (John 11:21-25; 12:1-2). Peter had known all of this, but he still didn’t understand until he heard it from Jesus himself (Jn 14:6-8). Peter needed Jesus to show him in order for him to understand fully what he was supposed to believe. And when Jesus showed him, Peter got up to follow Jesus right away!
III. God Uses Our Sins to Shape Our Confidence
God uses sins in our lives to help us learn what we are supposed to know. Of course, God never causes us to sin (which is why our sins in no way hurt God)! This means our lives don’t depend on us being good or dong the right thing so that God can love us. Our salvation doesn’t depend on us living a perfect life, but it does depend upon God being faithful to finish His work in us as He promised (Phil. 1:6; 2 Tim. 1:9)!
The Bible tells us that our sin will find us out and it will make us wobble (James 1:13-17; Gal. 6:7-8; 1 Cor. 10:12). Sin causes people problems; it causes destruction; it has eternal consequences (Ps. 36:1; 49:5-6; 41:4-5; Prov.