Published in The Des Moines County News on March 2, 2017.

Confidence can get you a long way in this world.  Look a man in the eye.  Give a firm handshake.  Assert yourself!  Believe in what you stand for, and be persistent.  But what is the basis of confidence?  What can you truly be sure of?  What if you’re standing in false confidence?

The danger of false confidence is immense when it comes to your standing before God.  When dealing with eternal matters, there are eternal implications.  You cannot afford to be wrong.  So, it’s at least worth examining.  If you died today, do you know where you would go?  Most people believe that they would probably go to heaven.  So prepare yourself… if God asked you why He should let you in to heaven, what would you say?

No amount of self-confidence could ever be enough on that day.  You might be shocked to know that your church attendance won’t be a factor.  God doesn’t have a tally sheet or scale with your good and bad deeds teetering back and forth.  That thing you did last week didn’t suddenly tip the scale.  Saying the right prayer, or praying enough times… isn’t the way in.  Are you familiar with the apostle Paul?  God used him to start many churches, and to pen 2/3 of the New Testament.  He’s an amazing dude!  However, even the apostle Paul said this:  “We have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh…”  Paul lists his good record, mentioning how well he has done in following God.  But he concludes that list, saying:

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ” (Philippians 3:7).

In the next verse, he says, “I count them as rubbish” (Philippians 3:8).  Seriously??  All that good he’s done – yet, in regards to his confidence before the God of the universe, he recognizes that they are essentially… garbage.

Where does your confidence lie?  What are you trusting in?  If you’re beginning to wonder if there’s any hope, that’s a good sign… because, in order to recognize and accept the right foundation for your confidence, you have to realize that beneath your own feet, there’s only sinking sand.  You have to come to the place in your life where you’re not comfortable trusting yourself or any good that you’ve done.  And if you had already resigned to the notion that there was never any hope for you, think again!  Because the worst of people have found hope, and seen the amazing things that God can do.  But that’s just it – God does those amazing things.

The answer is “faith.”  It sounds simple, because we naturally want to earn our keep and pay our debts – but Paul says that all he could do in that regard was garbage, in exchange for knowing Christ, and having a type of righteousness that only comes from “faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:9).

May you find that amazing hope simply by trusting Jesus to forgive your sins and make you new in Him!

Luke Scallon