The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"Confidence… No Confidence"
"Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ"(Philippians 1:6).
"We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).
"Being confident" and "have no confidence" lines the path of righteousness for born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We live more confidently than those who do not know the Savior, while at the same time confessing complete lack of confidence in our human faculties and abilities apart from His grace.
Consider a task for which we seem naturally suited and have often skillfully performed. Why the success? Have we found a way to live apart from God's presence and working? We might think so because we plan and execute the action by abilities that may seem inherently of ourselves. If, however, God choses to withhold the "life and breath and all things" He gives to all, would our doings have been possible? (Acts 17:25). Hardly. Moreover, as believers, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit infuses supernatural grace to enable our accomplishments. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" declared the Apostle Paul (Philippians 4:13; emphasis added). Paul clearly suggests that even the most everyday and natural tasks performed by believers are subject to God's guidance, motivation, and enabling. We may not consciously perceive such grace moving upon or within us. However, if we regularly pray for the Lord to lead and enable us, He infuses the life of Christ to our doings, whether we sense His moving within us or not. Paul could not have been clearer in affirming the entirety of our lives as subject to the enabling of divine life: "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come" (I Timothy 4:8).
In such blessed light of a life lived through Christ, we confidently affirm His enabling and our ability to act therefrom. We also humbly assign a "no confidence" acknowledgment regarding our abilities apart from the Lord's empowering of them. We affirm confidence in Him and in ourselves and abilities - as performed through Him. We confess no confidence in supposed abilities we may be tempted to perceive as of our own making. Both sensibilities form the conviction of believers who remember the words of the Lord Jesus - without Me, ye can do nothing - and the confession of Paul - "I can do all things through Christ which strengthenth me" (John 15:5).
"We also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you."
(II Corinthians 13:4)
Weekly Memory Verse
Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6)
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