Where's Your Confidence

 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

-Hebrews 10:35-36 (King James Version)

Why does it seem so easy to abandon our faith, yet so hard to keep it and grow it? I think the answer dwells in the nature of sin that we came from. We tend to try and hold on to things that we are used to, and are not willing to grasp unfamiliar things. We tend to be comfortable in the things we know, our sin being one of them. We may let go for a short time, only to run back to it when we are afraid to walk in the paths of the Lord. We fear what's around the bend. In these verses of Hebrews 10, the writer is talking about our confidence. What is your confidence built upon?

He says in verse 35, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward." In other words, he's saying not to throw away your confidence, because it has great reward. For the Christian, our confidence MUST be placed in Jesus. No where else, in no one else. Our confidence must be built squarely on Him and His finished work on the cross, and resurrection from the grave. My confidence is built upon that, is yours? If we back up to verse 32, we read, "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions." If you feel like casting your confidence in Jesus away, we're reminded of something important. He writes, "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions." In our early walk with Jesus, we were zealous for His work and His kingdom. We endured trials and temptations to abandon our faith. Yet we kept that faith. We stood up to trials, we stood up to temptations. We didn't cast out our confidence in Jesus then, why do it now? 

Verse 36 says, "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." We have need of patience. I looked up the biblical definition for patience and found these words: Persistence, Perseverance, Steadfastness, Endurance. If our faith is going to be built upon Jesus, we need persistence in building that faith. We need Perseverance to keep building it in spite of difficulties. We need steadfastness to remain unmovable from the place our confidence is placed. We need endurance to keep growing and not looking back. After we have done the will of God, then we will receive the promise of eternal life. Notice the word after. After we do the will of God for our lives. After we build our faith in Him. Is your confidence in Jesus growing, or are you casting it away? Think About It.