The Confidence We Have
Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him ~ Matthew 7:9-11 NKJV
God is a good Father. He is faithful and reliable which means that His children can trust Him for everything and anything they need. They need not to worry about their cares since they have the assurance that their Heavenly Father is there to resolve and solve whatever situation they may be facing. The moment we grasp this truth, that God is our Father, and that we can trust Him to help us, we will have the confidence to approach Him and let Him take control of our lives and whatever else we may be struggling with.
God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? ~ Numbers 23:19 NKJV
And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full ~ John 16:23-24 NKJV
One of the most important things for us to hold on to without wavering is the fact that God is faithful and He will surely fulfill His promises to us. I believe that the shortcoming is mainly on our side as His children. Do we believe that He can do it and that He will do what He has promised us? And this is where the issue of faith comes in. Look at Abraham for example, God promised him a child and even though it took so long, He still fulfilled that promise.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him ~ Hebrews 11:6 NKJV
By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude-innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore ~ Hebrews 11:11-12 NKJV
The confidence we have is in the promises of God. The confidence we have is that we can take God for His word knowing that He won’t fail on His part and that He won’t revoke what He has already promised us. When we take Him for His word, we hold Him accountable for what He has said concerning our lives and whatever we may be facing. This means that we take our positions as His children to claim those promises and constantly remind Him of them until He answers our prayers. One thing that will come in handy here is knowing who we are in God and who God is in our lives. It’s not just enough that you are a saved believer. Your position in Christ Jesus and the revelation you have of being a child of God and what it actually means to you is of great importance.
We should not approach God casually, we should do it boldly like Esther did. She may not have been sure whether or not the king would extend that gold sceptre to her and allow her to talk, but we do because Christ has already made a way for us.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need ~ Hebrews 4:16 NKJV
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful ~ Hebrews 10:19-23 NKJV
It’s this boldness that will cause us to pray and petition before the Father until He grants our request. And this is where persistence comes in. Confidence is one of the catalysts of persistence in our prayers.
Hannah, for example, prayed persistently until Eli the prophet mistook her for a drunken woman. She knew that only God could solve her barrenness and she made up her mind to pray until God settled her case. Prophet Elijah’s persistent prayers marked the end of three years drought in Israel. In one of His teachings, Jesus gave a parable to His disciples to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” ~ Luke 18:1-7 NKJV
Prayer is not just prayer. There are issues in our lives and areas of influence that cannot be solved by just a simple prayer. Sometimes we pray and assume that God has heard us and that He will take over our situations and come through for us, but it never happens. Hannah realized that her prayers were not getting her anywhere and so she changed her praying gears and God came through for her. Some of us need to change our praying gears because we are definitely praying in our comfort zones and the kind of prayers we are praying are not working. There are prayers that cannot get us anywhere or give us major breakthroughs in our lives, but then again, there are prayers that will cause God to do the impossible and extraordinary things in our lives.
Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart ~ Jeremiah 29:12-13 NKJV Now, this kind of calling, praying, seeking and searching is not for a fainthearted believer. It’s for someone who is ready to pay the price and like Esther, put her life on the line or rather, risk death itself, just to get a hold of God.
