Have you ever given a public presentation be it at work or at church or wherever and you have prepared and relied on your ability to present well, teach or preach; and you feel confident until you get to the podium and you look at the audience and your confidence disappears? The realization that you have already “bombed” strikes you and absolutely nothing can change the feeling so you present and at the end know for certain you most certainly didn’t just bomb you were a total “dud.”
Has that happened to you? It certainly has to me and once is more than enough! But, if you’re like me, “you chuck it to experience” and promise yourself you will never allow yourself to do that again! My way of thinking is if I really want to feel confident, I need to bring it before the Lord and ask Him to bless it after I have really prepared and asked him for guidance in the preparation. This is being confident; having the Lord’s guidance in the preparation and in the deliverance.
This leads me to the people of Judah at one point where they were quite confident because they were living in Jerusalem, the city where God’s Temple was in residence. They were so confident in their heritage, their city, and of course, the Temple. All of this however, was all for naught. They were pretty secure in who they were but it was false security because their reliance and confidence was not in God; but in themselves.
Isaiah wrote in Chapter 48 what God told him to tell them: “Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel–but not in truth and righteousness–you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and claim to rely on the God of Israel- the Lord Almighty is his name:”
Just because we go through the weekly rituals of attending church on Sunday and during the week bible studies or activities of the church faithfully does not secure our salvation. You may be the best home or cell study teacher the church may have but it doesn’t guarantee us a place at the front of the line. Do you feel secure because you are faithful in such? Our heritage, our church programs or great events cannot give us a relationship with God, and we certainly must not rely on our faithful attendance and participation to get us through.
Our reliance and dependability must be on God. We must depend on him personally. We must develop a personal and relational experience with the Lord and it must be daily and consistent. And, the relationship we develop must be with all of our heart and mind.
God told the people of Israel and Judah, “I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘MY images brought them about; MY wooden image and metal god ordained them.’ You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them?”
We must never get overly confident that we are “in” just because we “do” for the church and the neighbor down the street. We need our confidence in the Lord and remember we serve for Him and He provides through us. It’s all about Him, truly, certainly not about you and me!
ritasalomon 