Confident in Christ

Key Verse to Read and Treasure

I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will (continue to) perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of his return]. (Philippians 1:6, AMP)

For Insight

The Passion Translation reads this way, “I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Generally speaking, being confident means “the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something, having firm trust. The state of feeling certain about the truth of something; a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities.

Spiritually speaking, confidence is faith in God, certainty, and assurance of one’s relationship with God, a sense of boldness that is dependent upon a realization of one’s acceptance by God, and a condition that one’s destiny is secure in God.

In general, and as it relates to our walk of faith, without confidence we cannot grow or achieve new milestones. Confidence gives us the power we need to move forward and do those things we know we have been trained to do. The confident believer is able to witness Christ effectively because humans are programmed to trust and respond positively to confident people.

There are four types of confidence:

Unwarranted Confidence which is what arrogant or cocky people can have.

Pasted on Confidence which comes from false praise and adulation we receive from others at times. Such as what the devil loves to do in our lives. Build us up with air so he can deflate us later.  

It’s already done confidence which means I’m confident in what I can do and not based on my dependency on God. And,

Effort will lead to results confidence which is the most useful confidence I the secular or business world because it’s based upon mastering a skill, having an unwavering belief that effort and time will lead to success.

As Christians we don’t believe in the Gospel of self-confidence. The source of the believer’s confidence is in God alone which is what Jeremiah says, “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for  in these I delight.”

And, as Solomon wrote, We don’t trust in ourselves nor lean on our own understanding but only in the Lord and submit to him (Proverbs 3:5-6)

We only trust and have confidence in God our Rock and refuge (Psalm 18:23). We have confidence on the risen Christ who reconciled us to God by his work on the cross on our behalf.

If we are confident based solely on our own abilities, we will ultimately disappoint ourselves but if we are confident in Christ we can also have confidence in our identities in Christ.

The more we abide in the Vine and draw our life from that source the more our confidence enlarges. The result will show in the way we live our life and make decisions but it will go further and deeper than that, the end result will be the confidence we gain about our eternity and based upon the work of Christ.

As we abide, we are confident that through Christ the work that was begun in us  continues until we are perfected and ready for life in heaven with the Godhead and all the saints there.

Jesus I am confident, not in my own abilities but in you; knowing that the work you began in me will continue and I am being perfected being made ready for The Day you return.

For Application

As you are being perfected in the vine are you also being made confident that the work he began he will also bring to completion?  

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