365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 253: Your Confidence

Your Confidence

"For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared." (Proverbs 3:26 NIV)

Imagine you are walking through a dark forest in the deep of night.

The sky is shrouded in clouds; there is no starlight or moonlight at all to illuminate your path. You do not have a flashlight. You do not know the way. You have never walked in this woods before, so it is entirely unfamiliar to you. 

Your arms are outstretched ahead of you, searching for low-hanging limbs and tree trunks. You take short, uncertain, hesitant steps. You are fearful and tentative. As you feel your way along, you move cautiously forward—and wince as metal teeth clamp around your foot. You have stepped into a snare. 

Now imagine you are walking through the same unfamiliar woods but on a clear evening. The bright moon makes the night almost as light as day. You have a powerful flashlight. You can see your surroundings easily. But more than that, you have a Guide leading you. He walks up ahead, clearing the way, calling out warnings, pointing to snares. You walk carefully but confidently, without fear. You trust your Guide. You do not know the way, but He does. Your confidence is not in yourself but in Him.

Godly confidence does not depend on our familiarity with a situation; it depends on our familiarity with the Savior.

The Lord who is Our Confidence illuminates the way for us through His Word. He sends His warrior angels to protect us. He leads us through the counsel of the Holy Spirit. All of which allows us to walk boldly and freely.

The word "confidence" might trip us up a little if we think of it in terms of self-absorption or an inflated ego. We might pull back from it. But trusting in God as our confidence is not about who or how we are; it's about who and how He is.  It's not about bravado based on our own abilities; it's about boldness based on His. 

With misplaced confidence, we walk without concern because we don't know what we don't know; with God as our confidence, we walk without concern because we do know Who we do know.

"On what are you basing this confidence of yours?" others might ask, echoing the king of Assyria's question in 2 Kings 18. And we answer, confidently, "We are depending on the Lord our God."