{"id":2823,"date":"2019-11-13T20:41:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T03:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/felixculpa\/?p=2823"},"modified":"2019-11-13T20:41:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T03:41:52","slug":"confidence-in-christ-not-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/felixculpa\/2019\/11\/confidence-in-christ-not-country.html","title":{"rendered":"Confidence in Christ, Not Country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago at church, a friend came up to me and, as a conversation starter, asked me what I knew. I had to laugh, because as of late, I\u2019ve been contemplating about how life is strange, in that, when you\u2019re young, it feels as though you know a lot. But the older you get, you start to realize just how big the world is, and how little you know about it. You also start to realize that most of what you\u2019ve attempted in your life wasn\u2019t a result of knowing anything for certain so much as it was a gigantic leap of faith. The new job, the new baby, the new house, the new (to you) car. All a leap of faith, even if deep down, you smugly thought \u2026 I got this.<\/em><\/p>\n

No matter how confident you were, the truth is that you didn\u2019t know how long the job would last, if the baby would be healthy, if the house payment was doable (especially if the job fizzled), or if the car would run long enough to justify the cost. Sheesh. We\u2019ve driven some doozies in our marriage. Shaun knows a lot about car mechanics, so perhaps we made better decisions than those who weren\u2019t as knowledgeable. But cars, whether new or classic, are a gamble. I\u2019ve seen ancient cars run forever and new cars fizzle within a year.<\/p>\n

But back to the friend\u2019s question:<\/p>\n

What do I know?<\/p>\n

My response was to just laugh, and say \u201cLately, I realize just how little I know.\u201d And then I thought the same thing I\u2019ve been thinking as of late, which is that when I die, the one thing I need to know, I still know. I still know that Christ died, was buried, and rose three days later to save my sinful self, and that I am entitled to zero access to God or Heaven except through Him and His work on earth.<\/p>\n

In the prayer I\u2019ve been going through here on Patheos (you can see the other blog about it here<\/a>), it says this:<\/p>\n

Help me to always be devoted, confident, obedient, resigned, childlike in my trust of thee, to love thee with soul, body, mind, strength, to love my fellow-man as I love myself, to be saved from unregenerate temper, hard thoughts, slanderous words, meanness, unkind manners, to master my tongue and keep the door of my lips. Fill me with grace daily, that my life be a fountain of sweet water. Amen.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week, we discussed being devoted. This week, let\u2019s take confident. Speculation as to what the author meant by the term? Well, knowing that the author was a Puritan, I think it\u2019s safe to say he was speaking of confidence in the One to whom he was talking. That is, God.<\/p>\n

American society is bombarded with the thought that we need to be self<\/em>-confident. The message is everywhere. Flip on the TV, it\u2019s there. Flip through social media, it\u2019s there. Fly past the billboard, it\u2019s there. Sit in the classroom, it\u2019s there. Unfortunately, sit in a lot of churches, it\u2019s there. Read most modern books, it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t find it in the Bible. I John 5:13 comforts us with the fact that we can know<\/em> we have eternal life. And Philippians 1:6 says this:<\/p>\n

Being confident<\/em> of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

If you read the Psalms, you\u2019ll know that the Psalmist didn\u2019t have a lot of confidence in himself. He was constantly crying out to God to help him, save him, protect him. Was he helpless? I mean, did he just hunker behind a bush and roll up into a fetal position, unable to think, walk, run? Of course not. He fled when his enemies were fast approaching. He took precautions as to where he slept at night so as not to be noticed. But he didn\u2019t beat his hairy chest, give an ape call, and boast about his own strength. No, he did what he could, what he knew to do, and then prayed his heart out for the rest. He knew he was inadequate. He knew he was weak compared to a God who could accomplish far greater than he could ever ask or think. And so, though he worked hard to keep alive, his ultimate and final confidence was in his God.<\/p>\n

I think as Christians, that\u2019s all we can do, too. Use what mental savvy and physical ability God gives us, and have confidence and trust that He will do the rest.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is why so many of us struggle with sleep. We think the weight of the world rests on our shoulders. Or Donald Trump\u2019s shoulders. Or Nancy Pelosi\u2019s shoulders. It\u2019s tempting to seek confidence not only in ourselves, but in country rather than Christ. In our \u201cright\u201d to bear arms, our freedom of speech, or our booming economy. All of those certainly make life better, but they also make miserable saviors. Only Christ can save a soul, and what is a country made up of if not a multitude of souls?<\/p>\n

So yeah, I guess as our country (seemingly?) crumbles before my eyes, and as I age and experience more and more crumbling of my confidence in anything or anyone but Christ, I\u2019m actually encouraged. It\u2019s exhausting trusting in finite beings. In good but not necessarily Biblical principles. In a political system. In my husband\u2019s paycheck. In trucks to deliver the food to the store. In medical procedures. Etc. I can be grateful for the bounty God has given, and I should work to preserve all that He has given. But as the biological clock ticks louder and louder, and as the number of sunsets left in my life get fewer and fewer, the more I realize that every good and every perfect gift comes from above, and comes down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). And my job as a Christian is to praise, worship, and have confidence in the Giver of those gifts \u2013 not the gifts themselves.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago at church, a friend came up to me and, as a conversation starter, asked me what I knew. I had to laugh, because as of late, I\u2019ve been contemplating about how life is strange, in that, when you\u2019re young, it feels as though you know a lot. But the older you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2920,"featured_media":614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[163,990,996,234,999,24,987,993,1002],"class_list":["post-2823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christ","tag-confidence","tag-david","tag-donald-trump","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-politics","tag-puritans","tag-self-confidence","tag-sleep"],"yoast_head":"\nConfidence in Christ, Not Country<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few weeks ago at church, a friend came up to me and, as a conversation starter, asked me what I knew. 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