Abounding Confidence - A Series on Confidence, Part 24
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Remember, the word "hope" can also be translated as "confidence" in many of its occurrences in the Bible. This is one of those times. So, this verse is telling us we can abound in confidence. The word "abound" means to be above and beyond, to overflow. How many of us can honestly say that our confidence in God is overflowing, without bounds? Yeah, that's what I thought. I'd love to say that my confidence in God has no limits, but to tell you that would be a lie. Sadly, with all we've learned about the topic, my confidence is still lacking. But, praise the Lord, I'm getting better. Yes, He's still working on me.
So, here's the million-dollar question: how do we get to the point where our confidence is abounding? Well, it's like this, Romans 15:13 is a bit like a puzzle, and in order to find our answer, we need to look at all of the pieces.
Piece 1: "the God of hope" - As we've already discussed, God is the source of our confidence. If you do not know Him as your personal Savior, you do not have access to this hope. You must know Him and accept Him as Lord of your life. Once you have done that, it's a matter of looking to God for confidence rather than trying to find it in other things like our own strengths, abilities, etc.
Piece 2: "fill you with all joy" - Are you filled with joy? I will readily admit that I have joy though sometimes it's more obvious. But when others look at me, do they see my cup filled to the brim with joy? Probably not. So, how do we become filled with joy? To find that out, we need to look at another verse.
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Did you catch that? In God's presence there is "fulness" of joy. So, if we want to be filled with joy, we need to stay in God's presence. Notice I said we need to stay in His presence, not He needs to stay in ours. The fact is, God never leaves us or forsakes us. He is walking with us every step of every day, but are we walking with Him? Yes, it's possible to go about our business all day long and never even recognize God's presence with us. We're too busy to notice, too occupied with our own thoughts and ambitions. But, if we want to be filled with joy, we need to purposely and awarely walk in God's presence.
Piece 3: "and peace" - Again, we desire to be filled with peace, and peace, my friends, is the opposite of worry and anxiety. If we are filled with peace, that means there's no room for any of those negative emotions. But, once again, the question remains: how can we be filled with peace? I'm so glad you asked.
“ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
Perfect peace means it doesn't get any better than that, right? The key to that perfect peace is to keep our minds on God. Interesting, huh? In order to walk in God's presence, we need to be thinking about Him. If we're thinking about Him, we're automatically in His presence. Isn't that awesome? We can be filled with joy and peace by simply keeping our thoughts focused on God, being more aware of His presence and purpose throughout our days. And once we're abounding in joy and peace, the confidence comes. It's that easy. . . well, no, I should say it's that simple. Easy? Not so much.
I don't know about you but my mind is busily whirling about all day long. There are to-do lists, obligations, writing ideas, Bible lesson thoughts, desires, regrets and so much more. I imagine it like a never-ending dryer where everything goes in and then gets tossed around and around and around. My days can become so busy that I don't know if I'm coming or going, and I'm sorry to say there are times I crawl in bed at night and realize I haven't given God a moment's notice since my morning devotion time. It was like I spent some time with Him to begin my day, then it was off to the races, leaving God behind and never even realizing.
Friends, when we become so busy that we forget God, we're too busy. Something needs to go. When our minds become so cluttered that we have no room for thoughts of God, it's time for a good spring cleaning. We're robbing ourselves of sweet communion with God, joy, peace and confidence. What a shame! And so, I urge you (just as I am urging myself) to allow God to be more a part of your life. Invite Him into every moment. Laugh with Him. Cry with Him. Walk with Him. Run with Him. Just think how much less stressed and more confident we would be if we lived in God's presence day in and day out. It's possible, but it will require some effort and possibly even some sacrifice. But there's no doubt in my mind it will be worth it?