Confidence

                                                                                                                    

Aloha Dearest Family,

Many, many years ago I got really into the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Very exciting books! In several of the stories, Tarzan has a little monkey friend named Nkima. Now, Nkima is a very small monkey and most of the time when Tarzan is not around he trembles and cowers in fear that other animals will eat him. But when Tarzan is around everything changes. When Tarzan is around Nkima feels invincible. He sits on Tarzan's shoulder, puffs out his chest and taunts the other jungle animals to watch out, here comes Nkima! Why is Nkima now so full of confidence? It is because he is with Tarzan, Lord of the jungle. Nkima is so confident in Tarzan's abilities that he can now be brave when he would otherwise be a coward.

The same can be said of the Philistines in the book of II Samuel, chapter 17. They went out to war with Israel, God's chosen people. What made them so sure that they could win against Israel? It was a seasoned warrior named Goliath of Gath. Goliath stood at least nine feet tall (and could have been up to 13 feet tall depending on how you measure of a cubit). With Goliath on their side the Philistines felt invincible. Goliath challenged Israel to send out a man to fight against, but the biggest man in Israel was King Saul, and he wasn't about to go and fight with Goliath. The Philistines knew that whoever came up to fight Goliath was dead meat. However, they never counted on a young shepherd boy named David. While the Philistines put their confidence in the might of Goliath, David put his confidence in the might of God Almighty. The ending of this story is one for the history books. But this record is just one of dozens and dozens about men and women putting their trust and confidence in God and overcoming impossible odds.

The great part about this life that God has given us to live is that God wants us to succeed - in EVERYTHING! In our finances, in our health, in our jobs and businesses, in our relationships with others; God wants us to prosper. Unfortunately, many Christians do not know one of the great keys to success in life. This great key is knowing that we do not have to rely on our own abilities to achieve success. We can have confidence in God's ability! Remember, God is on our side, 

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) 

He wants you to succeed even more than you want to succeed. Man was never meant to be a "lone ranger" in life. God designed man to look to Him in all things that we need. He wants to be our sufficiency.

 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think an thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.  (II Corinthians 3:5)

Let's look at Isaiah 26:4, "Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." The words "everlasting strength" in other translations have also been translated as "the Rock of Ages". God is truly our Rock of ages that we can stand upon and put our trust and confidence in. If God is our Rock of ages, our everlasting strength, then we need never be anxious for there is nothing that we can ask him that He cannot and is willing to supply. If God can supply anything that we ask, isn't it foolish to put our confidence and trust in anything that man has.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. (Psalms 118:8)

 For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. (Proverbs 3:26)

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us.  (I John 5:14) 

We can remain confident in God because we know that whenever we go to Him, he always hears our prayers.

Another reason little Nkima had come to have great confidence in Tarzan, is that he had never seen him fail. In almost 35 years of walking with God I have never known Him to fail nor have I ever had my prayers go unanswered. It is a tremendous joy in being able to rely on one that has never failed - at ANYTHING!!! This is my God in whom I will trust and in whom I will place my confidence.

Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27)

Love Always, Ray