ODJ: behaving badly
The trouble is with me, for I am all too human (v.14). READ: Romans 7:14-25 Evelyn Waugh is the author of such literary classics as A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited. He possessed a scathing wit, and numerous other personal flaws we won’t enumerate here. After flirting with agnosticism, Waugh converted to [...]
CIA Agents Mission #1: Season Speech with Salt
By Isaac Tan, 20, Singapore “Stand up, stand up for Jesus” is an old, familiar tune that many Christians have sung before. It is much like an anthem and it calls on God’s people to remain resilient and steadfast in the faith as soldiers would. But how many of us really stand up for what [...]
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Loading ...ODB: confidence in what?
July 23, 2010
READ: 1 Corinthians 10:1-12
Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. —1 Corinthians 10:12
While walking through a home improvement store, I saw a man wearing a bright red T-shirt bearing this melancholy message: “Confidence: The feeling you have just before you understand the situation.”
I laughed at this humorous concept, but I also realized that the shirt carried a sane and sound warning. It’s a reminder to all of us who try to get things done through confidence in our own ability or credentials but without consciously trusting in the strength of God. If we think we can accomplish life’s tasks in our own strength, that false confidence will inevitably become our undoing—and we’ll collapse under the weight of our own failings.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this by recalling ancient Israel’s penchant for self-confidence and self-sufficiency. He described everything the Israelites thought they had going for them; then he told how they had turned those benefits into a license to sin and an almost arrogant confidence that would prove to be their undoing.
Paul said their self-confidence should warn us. His conclusion? “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Psalm 118:8 shows us the best way: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man,” or in ourselves. Where is your confidence? —Bill Crowder
Confidence in Christ is the right kind of confidence.
Source: Our Daily Bread
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