Growing in Confidence
Dearly beloved, if the Lord Jesus Christ could do nothing by himself, neither can we; but, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
The Father never left him alone because he always did the things that pleased Him.
If we are to have confidence in our Father we must assure (persuade) our hearts with what His Word says we are in Christ and do those things that please Him. We must think like He thinks about us; not believe what our flesh thinks about us. It was our Father's good pleasure to purpose who we are in Christ and freely give us all things with Him by grace.
Let’s face it, we know only too well about our inabilities, weaknesses, and the frailties of our flesh; this knowledge is against us and to our disadvantage. The adversary uses our fleshly thinking as his base of operation against us.
The love of Christ constrains us that one died for all, and since he died for us all we should no longer live for ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. Because of his sacrifice and accomplishments, we no longer know anyone after the flesh; we don’t even know Christ after the flesh any longer!
We are new creations, created in Christ Jesus: old things are passed away: behold, new things have come, and these new things are of God, not of the flesh.
If we lead our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ we will tear down the strongholds in our minds that Satan has used against us; then we will have confidence toward God.
This is the way of peace, of power, of joy, and confidence toward God as our Father. Our walk hinges on believing what God reveals about us; not what the flesh says about us.
God is faithful and He called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Fellowship is the Greek word “koinonia”, meaning sharing, communion, participation; a sharing relationship.
The previous context where this appears in I Corinthians 1, and it explains what we share with Jesus Christ our Lord, beloved. We share in his grace, we are enriched by him by the Word, we come behind in no gift (speaking of the spirit) as we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will confirm us unto the very end, unimpeachable in that day.
Our Father gave us the proof that confirms it: His spirit, and the spirit of sonship witnesses to our inner being that we the children of God, His heirs and joint-heirs with Christ! It is the proof we are saved and have eternal life. That should make us pretty confident!
God is faithful that called us to participate in this calling in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. This calling is above all we could ever ask for or conceive of ourselves, so beloved, think the way God would have us think about ourselves. Believe it, walk this way, speak the same thing about it; be perfectly joined together in the same mind and have the same opinion.
God called us in Christ and He freely gave us everything with him, beloved. He called us so we could live in this joyous reality.
Train your mind to think in this manner and make no provision for the flesh. Make your mind a fortress that God can work in to will and to do of His good pleasure.
When we think and believe who He says we are in Christ, we will more readily recognize His voice and have the confidence to perform His will according to His power that strengthens us.
Dearly beloved, confidence is a growth; it comes with application, with practice. Truly we can do nothing of ourselves, but with Him nothing is too hard. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us; He says so!