What Does It Mean to Be Confident?

What does it mean to be confident? Voices all around us boast of multifaceted confidence: abilities, financial security, future plans, and eventual victories, some benevolent and some sinister. For those of us who are skeptical or more realistic, these worldly confidences are disconcerting at best, and at worst, they seem to mock the concept of true confidence, making us cringe in some kind of unexplained dread. In an unstable world of worries and wars, what business do we have being confident of anything?

Confidence is actually a prominent concept throughout the Bible. This week, I encourage you to treasure up these calls, promises, and encouragements that will quell false confidence to be sure (and that can be disconcerting), but they will also inspire and fortify true confidence that nothing can shake - not a loud, angry, proud confidence that hurls insults and accusations, but a meek, gentle, kind confidence that embraces others with an unshakable kind of love.

There are some core reasons that we often lack confidence and the Bible directly addresses them: depravity, doubt, and denial. Let’s take a look at the astonishing reasons we can have true confidence in the face of these huge issues.

If you’re like me, you may be tempted to wonder if God has actually forgiven you for your sin, your depravity. It’s not that you think He can’t forgive, but just that you may not have actually repented well enough or been sincere enough in your prayers. Or maybe you’re done something so terrible that it’s really just too late for you. These kinds of thoughts are scary, depressing, and they completely ruin confidence. If you find yourself asking these questions, here is what the Bible says to you:

“Seeing then that we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” 

(Hebrews 4:14-16).

So the first reason for confidence is that we have a “Great High Priest”. What does that mean? Well, when Jesus was crucified, He could have stopped His own execution. He is God and so He has all the power of God - that’s why He could heal the sick and raise the dead. But instead of using His power and right to protect Himself, He chose to let people kill Him because He wanted to be punished in our place so that He could free us from wrath. Basically, He knew that He would need to punish us, so He decided that instead of doing that, He’d trade places with us, punish Himself, and then would be able to say that the debt we owe had already been paid. It’s quite an astonishing concept and of course, we who believe that Jesus is God like to call it “the gospel” which just means “good news”, and this is good news indeed!

The people of Jesus’ day had their own priests who sacrificed animals to atone for sin, but they had to do that over and over every year. Because Jesus is God, His sacrifice was more valuable that we can fathom, far greater than a goat, and so He had only to do it once, and that was more than enough. When He died and then rose from the dead, He triumphed over death, and now, He is alive to help us. That’s why the writer in that biblical text calls Him the “Great High Priest”. Of course, many people didn’t think Jesus actually was God and so they continued to do things the old way with their own sheep and their own priests. The writer of this text was trying to encourage people not to go back to the old way. Why? - Because Jesus is so much better.

One reason for confidence is that Jesus knows what it’s like to be tempted. He can help us resist temptation. And even when we fail to resist temptation, He is the Great High Priest who prays for us, forgives us, has taken our punishment upon Himself, and who invites us to come boldly before His throne of grace. No longer do we cower in dread or desperately try to prove our love for God by doing crazy things. Jesus is more than enough, and it is enough to be able to say, “I believe that He loves me and died for me. I am confident that He has saved me and will welcome me into heaven to be with Him forever!”

Another confidence-wrecker is doubt. How do we know that it is worth it to follow Jesus? Many people hated Jesus and that hasn’t changed. People hated Him so much that they killed Him, and that feeling hasn’t gone away over time. It’s not a surprise that if you believe in Jesus, you face challenges. Remember the writer who explained that Jesus is our Great High Priest? Well, later in his book, he talks about confidence again, this time in regards to all that the readers of his book had been through. They lived in a situation where there were some intense consequences for leaving the old way of sheep and goats in order to start loving Jesus, believing that His sacrifice on the cross was better than the old way. Here’s what he wrote in the Bible:

“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward…But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 10:32-35, 11:6).

These people had been through so much: prison and beatings and losing their property and other terrible situations. And things were not getting better for them. And even though all these terrible things were happening, the writer told them not to cast away their confidence. As some of you readers know, when confidence is costly, you might want to cast it away. Get rid of the confidence, and then you can get rid of the consequence. It sounds nice at first, but what about the Great High Priest? He’s not going to save us if we don’t believe that He will. This salvation is a gift we have to ask Him for. If we ask, He will never say no, but if we don’t ask Him personally through prayer, He will never say yes. So to cast away confidence is the same as casting away life, love, joy, and Jesus, for eternity. This ancient writer was saying, “don’t, O please don’t cast away your confidence! You must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him by asking Him for salvation through Jesus. That’s the only way to know and love God. Whatever happens, whatever they do to you, please never cast away that confidence!”

So that leaves one huge confidence-killer, one final fear: denial. “What if I can’t do it? What if I give up on believing in Jesus when things get hard? What if it’s all too much for me and I turn back to my old way - maybe not a way of sheep and goats, but maybe my old way of sin and addiction? What if my faith costs me too much and I decide to throw it away? What if I sin and fall and give up on Jesus? What if Jesus gives up on me?”

These are real questions, scary questions, ones that some of us have already faced, are currently facing, or are about to face. Sometimes for many of us, following Jesus is difficult. It’s hard. It hurts. And sometimes it’s downright terrifying. And yet His goodness and kindness keeps drawing us to Him because we’re never felt anything so wonderful as His love and compassion and the actual presence of His Holy Spirit literally dwelling inside of us! 

Jesus explained how that would work when He spoke to some of His followers one day. The Bible hold record of the conversation of Jesus when He was telling His followers what to do when they got into trouble because they believed that He is God:

“Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12).

Did you catch that? It’s not all up to us. The Holy Spirit (who is God) will actually show us exactly what to say when we need to say it. We just need to rest in Him. Our biggest fear is our own weakness, that possibility of giving up and missing out on eternal salvation in Jesus’ name. But that’s where another writer of the Bible comes in. He wrote a letter while he was in prison for no crime other than leaving the old way of sacrificing goats so that he could say that Jesus was his Great High Priest. He wrote a letter to a struggling church, one that he helped start (and had ended up getting flogged in the process - Acts 16). He knew that fear of giving up, and he had a very special message for his dear friends at that little church. Here is what he wrote:

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it (carry it on) until that day of Jesus Christ” 

(Philippians 1:3-6).

Did you notice what God has promised? Did you notice what the confidence is? He - God, the One who saved you and freed you from hell, the One who began a good work of redemption and glory and healing within you - He is the One who will complete that same work. You don’t bear the pressure to complete the work. God bears the pressure to keep you faithful. He does this through His Holy Spirit. When we pray and specifically ask that Jesus would be our High Priest, when we confess our sin and ask for His sacrifice to cover over it, in that very moment, God’s Holy Spirit comes to us. He lives in us and He gives power and hope and perseverance and everything we need. He starts the good work of salvation in us and He promises to complete it. This good work - He promises to carry it on. So we don’t need to be constantly terrified of losing salvation.

Of course, we must choose not to go back to the old ways. Of course we have to actually decide to follow Jesus. But in the moments when we want to say, “I still love Jesus”, but we are afraid that we are actually unable to do it because of all the pressure, that’s when we take confidence that God will do it for us through His Holy Spirit who lives inside of us. He started the good work and will complete it and bring us to heaven. 

And when we get there, we won’t be saying, “look at how strong I was! I didn’t give up and so I earned myself a spot in heaven because I was so brave and obedient”. No, no, no! When you get to heaven, you will have a much more beautiful song. Here’s how it will sound: “Thank You Jesus for dying so I could be here. Thank You Holy Spirit for staying with me the whole time and for being strong even when I was so weak. Thank You heavenly Father for making me and choosing me and holding me when I was facing pain. You were so good to me. I don’t deserve to be here, but You are so amazing and kind. Glory to You my God. Thank You for Your love!”

That is true confidence.