DAILY DEVOTIONAL
August 15 - 20
“God Promises Confidence”
Monday, August 15 Jeremiah 17:5-8
“Blessed are those who have made the Lord their confidence”
Jeremiah presents us with a vivid contrast between two types of human character. The first puts his confidence in humanity; the second puts his confidence in God. To rely on merely human and worldly resources, in neglect of God, is to place one’s confidence in one’s own wisdom and strength, or confidence in one’s fellow human beings who are as foolish and weak and fallible as ourselves, or confidence in that which is outward and circumstantial – worldly riches, sensory pleasure, and material possessions. Such confidence is an illusion for it has no sure foundation. As the plant finds nothing to nourish it in the barren sand, so a person can never draw the nourishment his soul needs from mere human and earthly resources.
However, the person whose confidence is rooted and grounded in God will experience unlimited nourishment for his soul. His soul will grow strong in God as he sees God’s consistent activity in his life. The troubles and trials of life will not be able to knock him off stride because he knows that God will never leave him to face them alone.
My confidence is in you, Lord, for unlike the world you will not disappoint me. Amen.
Tuesday, August 16 Matthew 14:22-33
“Why did you doubt me?”
One of the wonderful truths we learn from this story is that Jesus is present with us in our times of trouble. He promised his disciples at the end of this gospel, “I am with you always, even to the end of time” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus certainly could have calmed the storm from the hillside where he was praying to his Father, but he chose to take a walk on the sea – not to show off his miraculous power but so he could be with his disciples and his presence would be real to them.
Seeing Jesus, Peter, the realist, cries out, “Lord, if it is you . . .” – he wanted to be sure that it was really Jesus – “. . . tell me to come to you by walking on water.” So strong was Peter’s confidence in Jesus that he was willing to try the impossible if Jesus asked him to do so. And Jesus did. Stepping out of the boat with his eyes on Jesus, Peter walked on the water. But, his confidence in Jesus weakened as he considered the earthly reality of his situation, and he began to sink. Although Peter had taken his eyes off Jesus, Jesus reached out his hand, grabbed Peter, and they climbed back into the boat.
Even though I may lose my confidence in you, Lord, you do not abandon me. Amen.
Wednesday, August 17 Luke 18:9-14
“Some had great self-confidence”
Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee represents the person who does a good job keeping God’s law, while the tax collector, being in a profession in which extortion and dishonesty areprevalent, represents the worst of sinners. From our human perspective, it does not seem fair that the law-keeper was rejected by God while the law-breaker was accepted, but Jesus wants us to look beneath the surface behavior of these two people and consider their attitude about themselves.
The Pharisee saw himself as being good enough not to need God to do anything for him other than affirm his goodness. He was supremely self-confident, relying on his goodness to make himself right with God. The tax collector saw himself as unworthy and in need of God to be merciful. He had no confidence in his ability to be good enough, so he placed his confidence in God’s willingness to hear his confession of sin and to forgive him. And, Jesus says, God heard this man’s prayer and forgave him his sin.
I place myself in your hands, Lord, confident that you will forgive my sin. Amen.
DAILY DEVOTIONAL
August 15 - 20
“God Promises Confidence”
Thursday, August 18 Philippians 3:4-11
“I could have confidence in myself”
When it comes to your salvation, do not put confidence in yourself. Instead, put your confidence in Christ. Paul regards confidence in self and confidence in Christ as mutually exclusive. From his perspective, it is impossible to place one spiritual foot on the foundation of one’s own goodness and one spiritual foot on the foundation of what Christ has done for us. Both feet must be firmly planted on the foundation of Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul outlines his impressive personal resume and declares it worthless when it comes to his salvation.
It is therefore not the external things that count, but what happens inside. Salvation is found in Christ only, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law (that is, from doing good deeds), but which is through faith in Christ.” From start to finish, Paul could never forget that salvation, which includes resurrection from the dead, is a gift of God. It is 100% grace that saves us, and any attempt to look to ourselves and put confidence in what we see cheapens the grace freely given by God.
I am confident that through faith in you, Lord, I am saved. Amen.
Friday, August 19 1Thessalonians 5:4-11
“Wear as a helmet the confidence of salvation”
The imagery of light and darkness is commonly used by Paul and other New Testament writers to designate “insiders” and “outsiders.” “Night” and “darkness” are associated with alienation from God, and ignorance about the reality of the Second Coming of Christ and final judgment of the world. Correspondingly, “day” and “light” are associated with salvation and knowledge about the return of Christ and his judgment of all people. In this passage Paul picks up another aspect of “night”; its association with ungodly behavior (illustrated by drunkenness).
Even as Paul thinks of living in the light and in sobriety, he is gripped with the reality that our life until Jesus comes will be a battle. We gird for the battle with faith and love, here presented as our breastplate, and the confidence of our salvation, presented as our helmet. Paul develops this metaphor of the armor of the believer in fuller scope in Ephesians 6:10-20. To be confident that God has saved us and given us the Holy Spirit, who is our guarantee of eternal life in heaven, is to be equipped to stand strong against the darkness of doubt about our salvation.
Confident that I am saved, Lord, I live in the light of doing your will. Amen.
Saturday, August 20 Titus 3:3-8
“We are confident that we will inherit eternal life”
Paul’s passionate commitment to being made right with God by God’s grace alone stands at the center of this summary of the Gospel. Salvation simply cannot be achieved by our good works. It is all God’s doing from start to finish. The sentence “He washed away our sins and gave us new life through the Holy Spirit” suggests to us the past and present tenses of God’s kindness and love. “He washed away our sins” portrays an act of cleansing in the past. This is what happened at the time when, by faith, we accepted the death of Jesus on the cross for our sin.
New life through the Holy Spirit becomes a process by which we receive and experience the continuing cleansing of our sins by God. As Christians we do not want to sin after we have accepted Christ, but we find ourselves doing so. Discouraged by our inability to remain sinless, we may become concerned about our salvation – can we possibly lose it due to our present sin? Our confidence that we will receive eternal life is based in the truth that the Holy Spirit lives within us and through him there is ongoing forgiveness of sin.
Thank you, Lord, for your continuing forgiveness of my sin. Amen.