I'm Confident Of That (Part One)

I'M CONFIDENT OF THAT (part one)

In the Wed. night study we've been going over verses regarding boasting about tomorrow and making plans for tomorrow but things not going as planned. Sometimes we're too confident that things are going to go a certain way and are blindsided when they don't. Being overconfident can get us in trouble. But we can view the word confident or confidence in a purely negative light. We associate confidence with pride and arrogance, but that's not always the case. There are times where the word is used in a positive way in the bible. Let's take a look at some of those examples and see what we can take away from them.

1) What are you basing your confidence in?

When you look up the word confidence you see associations to words that we use all the time like belief, faith, trust. In this we can say we have confidence in the Lord. That's a sure confidence since there's no reason we shouldn't have confidence in the Lord. However, when we have confidence in people or something else, that can be a problem.

Another word associated with confidence is certainty. We can be certain about things that don't end up happening. "I was certain it wasn't going to rain so I didn't bring an umbrella. And I got soaked." The reason for our confidence was we trusted what the weather man said. The reason he said it wasn't going to rain was because he had confidence in the computer program or the radar system. It goes to show how people and things can be unreliable.

Sometimes we have confidence in ourselves. Is that wrong? Not necessarily. Self-confidence is the belief in our ability. If we believe we can do something it's usually because we've already done it before or we've done something similar that causes us to believe we can do it now. But sometimes that confidence is exaggerated. We are facing something beyond our ability but we're still confident we can do it.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to have the confidence to try something, but if we're overconfident, we could be setting ourselves up for embarrassment. Speaking of overconfidence, let's look at Sennacherib [sinakerib], king of Assyria.

2nd Chron. 32:1, "After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself."

When Hezekiah knew that Sennacherib was coming to make war, he talked with his officials and came up with a game plan. Once some things were in place, he encouraged the troops.

Vs. 6-8, "He appointed military officers over the people and assembled them before him in the square at the city gate and encouraged them with these words: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said."

No wonder the people gained confidence after a pep talk like that! Be strong and courageous! We've seen that before, right? Joshua needed to hear that when he was taking over for Moses. He needed the confidence to move forward as Israel's leader. The troops here needed to have confidence in the Lord's great power working for them, despite the vast army coming against them.

What do we need confidence to do today? What are you facing today that you need to be strong and courageous about? There is a greater power with you than the power that is against you! Worldly power is no match for the power of Jesus! It's a good thing the troops gained confidence because the opposition showed up to try to make things difficult.

Vs. 9-15, "Later, when Sennacherib king of Assyria and all his forces were laying siege to Lachish, he sent his officers to Jerusalem with this message for Hezekiah king of Judah and for all the people of Judah who were there: “This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: On what are you basing your confidence, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege? When Hezekiah says, ‘The LORD our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria,’ he is misleading you, to let you die of hunger and thirst.

Did not Hezekiah himself remove this god’s high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it’? “Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the other lands? Were the gods of those nations ever able to deliver their land from my hand?