Put Your Confidence In God! 4-27-25

Welcome to the word for the week. Hebrews 10:35 in the NKJV says “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” Obviously, it is not talking about you having confidence in yourself but rather that we should have our confidence in God. In other words, we need to have the old school word called assurance. Assurance does not just declare that God is able to do something. Assurance declares that you know He will do it. You can have the assurance that God will deliver you, make a way out of no way, and never leave or forsake you. You can have that assurance because He has made sure it was written for our sakes. Arrogance trusts in self. Assurance trusts in God. Let’s go further.

In Ezra chapter four the people who claimed to be with Israel hired counselors to frustrate their purpose when Israel rejected their help in building. The enemy still uses the same tactic today which is to cause those around you to frustrate you. However, he also uses a new tactic and that is to frustrate you from within. In other words, your source of frustration is not from people and things around you but that which is within you. As we used to say many years ago in church, sometimes your worst enemy is the enemy-in-a-me! Once upon a time it did not take much to convince people that they needed to simply wait on God. Now, there is a great spirit of impatience in operation. People want things right on the spot and that is dangerous. Even in the age of microwave ovens some things still take time to cook in those.

The frustration from within is partly due to what we see portrayed around us. You look on social media and it appears that everyone is living the good life except you. Everyone has had their breakthrough except you. Everyone has seen God do it except you. The reality is that most of what you see or hear simply is not true. There are people around you everyday with far worse troubles than you but they know how to put on a front that all is well. Here is something we need to get. The race is not given to the swift but to the one who endures. That means you do not win the race because you were the fastest. You win the race because you dared to hang in there long after others have quit. In other words, when you could have given up and threw in the towel you stayed steady in the Lord until you saw your victory. The servant of Elijah went back seven times before he saw rain. Namaan dipped in the Jordan river seven times before he was healed. Israel marched around Jericho seven days before the walls came down. Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years before they entered into the promise land. Are you willing to wait for what is great or rush for nothing?

The mother of Jesus had no idea what He was going to at that wedding. However, she did tell the people that whatever Jesus told them to do to make sure they did it. In the song God Is Able there is a part that says “we often know not which way to turn. It goes on to say but there is One who knows the road. He’ll help us carry, He’ll help us carry, carry on. Don’t you know God is able?” The song does not say they hope God knows the road or that they hope He is able. It declares He is able because they already have their confidence in Him. That means that you just know that you know that you know. Yes, I said that right. Read it again if you need to. Confidence in God means that you know He hears you, He sees you, He loves, He covers you, and that He will deliver you. It means no matter what it may look like today, my God is more than able to deliver me! As they say, I feel like giving Him the glory because I already know that He will come through on my behalf! Say that as many times as you need to until you see what you have been saying. Put your confidence back in God and this time do not take your hands off the plow until what you have prayed for has been accomplished. Stay blessed!

May the Lord continue to bless and keep you in His grace,
Bishop Carlos J. Lennon