How Do We Have Confidence Before God Pt. 2 Series

-- New Revised Standard

Hebrews 10:35 Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.

In the 1st lesson we talked about what confidence was, and the commands that God gave us in His Word in order to walk in confidence before Him. Confidence is another way of saying we have assurance before God. There is a purpose for this confidence. We can not appropriate the promises of God if we are not assured of something when we ask. We have to ask with confidence, and we can only do that when we are in line with God’s will.

In this lesson I would like to talk about what is the reward of that confidence and how we must obtain it. Promises are given yet we must walk in obedience to His Word and have proper motives in order to obtain these very precious promises.

God’s precious promises will not fall on us automatically. We have to know the will of God before we can even ask for them. We have to ask in line with His will. God’s Word is God’s will. Many people say things like, well, if God wants me to have something He will just give it to me. This is not scriptural and can cause problems for us and get us discouraged. This is not to say that our Father will not bless us many times out of His own goodness, as any parent would want to bless their children, however this is not what we are talking about here. Other people ask God for things just to fulfill the lusts of their own fleshly desires. Both of these things will cause you to fall short of receiving God’s promises by faith.

There is a purpose to everything God does and says. He wants us to be confident in our asking so we can appropriate His promises. He wouldn’t have given us promises if He didn’t want us to have them would He? Yet, he wants us to grow up into maturity so that we can not only receive the promises but use these promised blessings to be a blessing to others.

The Apostle James said.

James 4:2-3. You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

He is saying you do not have because you do not ask, God knows what we need before we ask , yet the intent is, we still have to ask. Then it goes on to say, and you do not receive because you ask amiss. In other words, we are asking for the wrong things and for the wrong reasons, basically so we can spend it on our own desires, fulfilling the lusts of our flesh.

We put ourselves in a place where we can not receive because of our wrong motives. I believe our Father God would like to give us things, but we can not receive them many times because of our wrong motives. So in other words, we can not receive the promises of God by faith because our faith will not work when our motives are all wrong. Another way of saying this is, our faith will not work when our motives are wrong, and we cannot receive when our faith is not working, therefore we don’t get what we asked for.

Any parent knows that if you gave your child just everything it wanted, the child would be spoiled rotten. I believe our Father wants to tremendously bless us, yet we have to get to the point where our motives are right and pure before Him, in order to receive these blessings. I believe we can get to the point where we are a funnel for God’s blessings when we get to the place where our fingers are not sticky, if you know what I mean. I believe we will get to this place when we begin to pray for others and not ourselves. When we are doing this we are not wanting to spend on our own lusts, but to bless others. This is God’s way. Give and it shall be given to you. This is a principle of sowing and reaping.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.

Also, God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7. But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.