Increasing Your Confidence In Christ

Four times Jesus said, "O you of little faith".

The Greek word for "little" used in the orignal manuscripts could be translated "lacking confidence".

So we can conclude that at least four times Jesus expressed dismay that His disciples lacked confidence in Him.

The first is found in Matthew 6:30 (and Luke 12:28). It is important to read the entire context of the quote.

Matthew 6:25 - "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?"

26 - "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

27 - "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?"

28 - "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;"

29 - "And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

30 - "Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more cloth you, O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH?"

Jesus is teaching us that experiencing anxiety over material needs is unspiritual. Its natural; but it denotes a lack of confidence in God.

Question: How can my confidence in Christ in this area of my life be increased?

Answer: By looking at the birds and flowers.

"Stop and smell the roses" is not a phrase from the Bible but it is based on scriptural principle.

The birds and flowers don’t depend on money, they depend on God. Only man depends on money - and money eventually fails.

Actually, material possessions can give the allusion of security and even keep some from depending upon God at all.

IT IS NOT OUR LACK OF MATERIAL POSSESSIONS BUT OUR LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST THAT IS OUR PROBLEM.

Three times in verses 25 through 34 Jesus says, "Do not worry".

The literal meaning of the Greek word for worry is "to be drawn in different directions".

We become like the lion in the circus.

Ever wondered why the lion tamer holds up a stool when he enters the lion’s cage? It is so the lion will be frozen by not knowing which leg of the stool to strike out at first. He is pulled in different directions and so he does nothing.

That is what worry does to us. It immobilizes us. It renders us ineffective. We are drawn in different directions, can’t decide which direction to go in first, and end up doing nothing at all.

That is why worry is such an effective tool of our adversary the devil. He does not need to make us overtly wicked people. All he has to do to render us ineffective is get us to lose our confidence in Christ.

Spend time every day viewing God’s created order all around you. "Consider the lilies". Become a bird watcher! Look into the night time sky with wonder as the ancient Psalmists did! Take a hike in the woods. Plant a garden. Mow your lawn. You will see a manifold display of the handiwork of the Almighty!

If He can create and sustain all the universe He can take care of you!

Then again Jesus uses this phrase in Matthew 8:26 (also Mark 4).

"But He said to them, ’Why are you fearful, O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH?’ Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm."

The Sea of Galilee is only about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. It isn’t unusual for violent storms to totally engulf this small body of water.

It doesn’t really take much for a storm to rock our boats either.

The storm wasn’t from disobedence. The disciples were not a bunch of rebellious Jonahs. Actually, they were on the boat because they followed Christ. (verse 23)

Some erring teachers propose the idea that Christ’s followers who have enough faith never get in trouble.

Baloney. It is because we follow Christ that we sometimes face trouble.

In fact, Jesus knew all things so He certainly knew the storm would come. Christ permitted the storm in order that the disciples might learn from it. It is apparent from their response that they had a lot to learn.

Mark’s parallel account records the words of the disciples when they went to wake Jesus up. "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" (Mark 4:38)

"Don’t you care?"

How many times have we said that to God?