I have been through several health challenges in the last nine months. Yet, I am nearly recovered from all of them. God is good and a healer of all my ailments.
Nevertheless, I was surprised to receive another health challenge on Friday.
As a precaution because of my family history, I had a sonogram done to detect any abdominal aneurism. And wouldn’t you know it, I did have one! This can be life-threatening if it dissects- which it could at any time. And one did nine months ago in my heart area that nearly killed me. What a bummer! When will these challenges cease?
Fortunately, through the miracles of modern medicine there is hope that minor surgery can correct the problem-yet this remains to be determined.
As a result, this week I was tempted to throw away my confidence- a confidence that depends on God being good, loving me, and in complete control of my circumstances. How could such a God allow me to have challenge after challenge? I was fighting to maintain my faith in God.
Why shouldn’t I throw away my confidence in God? Has he acted trustworthy towards me?
Then, God brought these verses to mind,
“Do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised” (Hebrews 10:35-36).
God does not want me to throw away my confidence in him. He wants to use this tough time to build endurance and perseverance in me (James 1:1-2).
For he tells us that perseverance is fundamental to our ability to grow in godliness. “Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness” (2 Peter 1:5-6).
He wants us to grow in our confidence that he is good, loves us and will work all our circumstances out for our good no matter how bleak things look.
But it’s a battle.
Peter threw away his confidence in Jesus to help him to walk on water and was chided for not depending more on Jesus (Matthew 14:29-31).
However, the same Peter also showed his confidence in following Jesus by saying, “To whom shall we go, you have words of eternal life?” (John 6:68) when few followed Jesus.
Here are some thoughts about how to win the battle for confidence.
We have a supernatural enemy in Satan who often suggests ideas that question God’s goodness and power. We need to be alert for these ideas and rely on God’s help to identify and extinguish Satan’s flaming arrows (Ephesians 6:16).
No one promised us a rose garden. The Christian life is not easy if we aren’t going to throw away our confidence in God. “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Finally, we need to use our fears and sadness to discover what we are relying on, false hopes or God’s truth. Are we relying on perfect circumstances, or God’s purposes always working for our good in our circumstances?
If we are relying on false hopes, we need to ask God to help us to put off their control of us. If we are relying on God’s truth, we need to ask him to strengthen us to grow in our confidence in him and to thank him for his work in us (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Journey into Lightl 
There was a certain man who had a car.
He had no knowledge of receiving the car, nor did know why he had it. He just had it, and this was the only car he was ever going to have.
This certain man saw that many others had cars; some were shinier than his, some faster than his, and some appeared to just be better even though this man couldn’t put his finger on why. (there were some not as nice as his too)
Since this car had always been, the man didn’t see the true value of the car.
After all, was this the car the car owner asked for, or was it just what he got?
The man started to realize that this car would not last forever and only took care of it when it had problems or broke down. Why put time and effort into something not permanent?
Since this car broke down on occasion the man thought it was not a very good car and decided that the maker of this car didn’t make a very good one for him. This man took care of the car as best he knew how, but the Maker made better cars for others, why was his the way it is?
One day this certain man heard of a book about the Maker of his car and decided to become more familiar with it. This book told stories about all the cars this Maker had made. Some of the cars ran without problems, some had endless problems, but the difference was that the Maker had said “If you find that you have problems with the cars I made, call on me and we will fix these cars together”
The book also told of the great love the Maker had for each and every one of His cars, no matter how the were driven.
Perhaps the Maker hadn’t been plain enough for all of His car owners to understand? Did they need to read the warranty again?
Perhaps some these car owners decided that only they should fix the cars they owned without help?
Maybe those owners never believed that the cars had a Maker, and therefore there was no one to help in the first place?
Those that became familiar with the book about the Maker realized that not only was the Maker interested in helping fix their cars, but he was also glad to do all the heavy work……if only the car owners called on Him.
The familiar (we’ll call those that became interested in the Maker’s book The Familiar) also became aware the their cars didn’t “just happen”, they were purposefully and lovingly made.
The Maker also “warranted” that when the cars REALLY had problems the Maker’s son bought them back at a very high price to fix them again.
Once those car owners eyes had opened and they realized the purchase of their broken down cars had been made on their behalf, and at the high price the Son of the Maker paid, the cars were returned to them better than new. All they had had to do was realize that each car was made with love and to acknowledge the Maker’s Son’s sacrifice.
How well would we have cared for the cars from the very beginning had we know just how much the Maker loved our cars?
How valuable would we see our cars had we known how much the Son was willing to pay?
Hi Alan,
A story that I sense has a profound message. I will need to think on it.
Rich
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