Confidence has the power to shape us. It gives us peace and helps us to feel ready for the experiences and challenges life throws at us. When we are confident, we are more likely to move forward with people and opportunities. Confidence is important in helping us grow, but because things frequently have a tendency to fail us, it is often elusive. How do we find true confidence, the kind that can stand the test of time?
Recently, Pr Peter Sze from The New Covenant Church shared a message regarding this topic. It is a message that I feel is extremely helpful and hopeful in these challenging times.
Christ Jesus is the Basis of Our True Confidence
Pr Peter shared that knowing true confidence will help us to live life fully. We need to know what’s true and build our lives around it because if we place our confidence on things that are false, they will not stand.
People put confidence in different things. This may include their connections, competency, their consistency in being able to deliver, or their character. Yet none of these things are time-tested. As we make our way through life, most of us will come to a realisation that many of the hopes and human institutions we put our confidence in will let us down at some point. This is inevitable, for we are all imperfect beings.
“True confidence is trusting in Jesus for our lives, both now and eternally,” Pr Peter imparted, “and Jesus Christ is the basis of true confidence. Furthermore, it’s got to be the true Jesus.” We can place our true confidence in Christ Jesus because He is the only one who is both truly God and truly man. He is the only one who bridges men, and God who is perfect. Christ Jesus is the only one who will not fail us. How do we know that Christ Jesus is indeed truly God and truly man?
In 1 John 5, the apostle John wrote about overcoming the world.
1 John 5:5-8,
Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 6This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ—not by water alone, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies to this, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement.
God’s Spirit Himself testifies to Jesus’s individuality, and not only that, but it is thrice confirmed. The Spirit and God’s testimony testifies to Jesus’s divinity, and the water and blood testify that Jesus was also truly man.
The Pillars of True Confidence
- True Confidence #1: We have eternal life
There are a few pillars when we trust in Jesus that we can build our lives on. The first of these pillars of true confidence is that we have eternal life.
1 John 5:11-12,
11And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
“We have eternal life because we trust in the One who conquered death and sin, who rules again and who lives forever,” Pr Peter encouraged. “Eternal life is the life of God given to us; it belongs only to God and He gives it to us because we have faith, we trusted in Jesus. Eternal life begins the very moment we chose to have faith in Christ and it continues forever, with Him. When our physical bodies waste away, our lives continue on with Him.”
“Jesus puts it experientially. If you know God is working in your life now, if you can feel Him doing something in your spirit now, if you have heard him or you get excited when you read His word, you know you have eternal life because you know God. And eternal life is more than how long it is, but also how good it is. No matter the circumstances or surrounding around us we have this confidence of a good and eternal life.”
True Confidence #2: He hears our prayers
The second pillar is that we know God hears our prayers.
1 John 5:14-15,
And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.
We know that God hears us every time we pray according to His will. Many of us may not realise it, but the Spirit of God is at work in our lives, bit by bit, changing our will, changing our desires, changing our thinking, so that our thinking and everything in our lives will begin to align to God’s will. When we know He hears, we already have whatever we ask. This is also a confidence we have.
We also know that God is so for us. He always wants the best for us. He wants an abundant and full life for us. He hears us even though our prayers are not answered yet. Sometimes we may not understand why our prayers are unanswered, but we know that His heart is for us and that He is favourably inclined to give what is best for us. We have the confidence that God knows and sees us.
True Confidence #3 We can live righteously
The third pillar is that we can live lives that are pleasing to God.
1 John 5:2-4,
By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, 4because everyone born of God overcomes the world.
The third pillar is that we can live lives that are pleasing to God. “If we love God, we keep his commands,” Pr Peter encouraged, “and His commands are not burdensome. It is simply to love one another as God has been loving us. We can love because we have tasted of His love; therefore we can love others.”
To be born of God is also to live a lifestyle that is not sinning. God holds our hands and leads us to the right path. It is a life that is protected by God and untouchable by the evil one. In Christ, we are the righteousness of God, and this righteousness that is us will flow out of our lives in righteousness.
True Confidence #4 We can overcome the world
1 John 5:4
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
In today’s world, Christians are faced with so much pressure. The media seem to be against us, in many nations the leaders seem to be against us, and the financial systems in this world are often very unreliable. We cannot base our confidence on the world. However, God reminds us that only the ones who have faith in Christ Jesus will overcome the world. “This is so important for us to know in a time such as when everything seems to be against us,” Pr Peter conveyed.
Our faith in Christ Jesus is a consistently abiding one, an ongoing reliance and trust upon Him. He has told us Himself that in this world there will be trouble, but also to take heart for He has overcome the world (John 16:33). We can be world-overcomers because we trust in Him and we can become strong in Him. In 1 John 2: 13,14 we are also reminded that in addition to Christ, we ourselves have also overcome the evil one because the word of God lives in us.
True Confidence #5 We are children of God
The fifth pillar is that we are children of God.
1 John 5: 1-2
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
To trust in Jesus the Christ is to be born of God, and if we are born of God then we are His children. To be His children is to love Him and others in the family. Being sons of God is about allowing oneself to be loved by Him and to remain in His love.
“Being children of God, we just need to learn to let go and remain in His love,” Pr Peter encouraged. “Discipleship is simply about living the life of the Beloved.” The life of the Beloved is characterised by freedom (no longer slave to sin, habits, temptations), intimacy (abiding in Him and He in us), security (no longer a slave to fear), about being heirs (not servants but heirs), and there’s an anointing that abides from the Holy One. We know that God’s Spirit is with us to guide us, to enable us to do His will righteously.
John concluded his first epistle by exhorting the brethren to keep away from idols, which is any false representation that takes away the place of God in our lives.
1 John 5: 21
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
When we trust in Christ Jesus, we will have all these pillars of true confidence and we can live life fully.
Note: This article was written with the permission and help of Pr Peter Sze, with the hope that it will encourage Christians and remind us of the true confidences we already have in our Lord Jesus Christ especially in these trying times. You can view the full message through tNCC’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To-gjX1GKEI
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