Christian Confidence
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” – Jeremiah 17:7
I have a vivid memory from the first grade. I was an awkward, chubby kid. Each day, my only hope was to get through class, and get through recess, so that I could get home without anything too embarrassing happening. But unfortunately, time stopped the moment I had to read out loud in front of my classmates. I knew the words on the page, but my mind raced passed them, leaving no time for them to come out of my mouth. I must have sounded like an old CD player that just keeps skipping. Finally, my first grade teacher had had enough and she blurted out, “What’s wrong with you? Do you have a bone for a brain?”
After that, I would shut down when I was asked to read. That is, until my fourth grade teacher treated me differently. She gave me special reading assignments to do on my own. Then we met together, and she treated me as if I didn’t have a reading problem. In fact, she treated me as if I were a good reader who had good insights. And you know what? I actually became one. I got my confidence back because one teacher looked at me differently.
That is essentially what Jesus has done for us. We have stuttered our way through life, giving into our sinful desires. God has every right to call us what we are: spiritual screw-ups who deserve to be separated from him. But like my fourth grade teacher, God looks at us as if we were good people who do the right thing. He sees us this way because we are covered with Jesus’ love and forgiveness. As our substitute, Jesus was treated like a sinner on the cross, so now we are treated like a saint. The more we realize that God looks at us as good people through Jesus, the more we will start acting like it.
Relying on the Lord Jesus, we gain the confidence to face the circumstances and challenges of life. God patiently teaches us in his word, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” Faithfully supported by God who loves us dearly, we can face the events of life, no matter how demeaning or difficult they may be.
