DON’T THROW AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE

HEB 3:12  Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;

Since the word of God gives us permission to “exhort one another daily” I will take the opportunity to exhort you with the things that the Lord has been exhorting us about lately.

I have begun to notice with increasing insistence of the Holy Spirit that that I need to recover the confidence in God’s written word that is our possession. It seems so easy to slip down into a spiritual lethargy when it comes to walking in real biblical faith and confidence in the covenant we have with God sealed in the blood of his son. 



 The writer of Hebrews says,

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”   (HEB 10:35-36, KJV)

The word confidence there is parrhesia which means free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance. It also has reference to freedom and unreservedness in speech. 

I have been convinced for a long time that there is sufficient power in any promise of God to cause it to become effective in my life. If I would just sit with that promise until it becomes so much a part of my inner workings that power begins to operate and transfer itself from the word to me, from God’s spirit to my spirit. Recently I have begun to apply this position to the commands of God as well as the promises. Anything God tells me to do in the Bible, I can do but  I need to apply the same confidence and patience and be willing to sit with the command of God as well as the promise and allow it to work in me until it becomes so much a part of my inner working, my character and nature—that I automatically find myself doing it.

Going back to our text, the Apostle is exhorting us not to throw away our confidence for a reason—the reason that it yealds—“…a great recompence of reward…”

The words translated great reward are, mega (which I don’t need to comment on) and  misthapodosia which means  “payment for work accomplished.”

My translation would be “the payback is huge.” 

In most Christian circles today we have extended grace to cover everything

we do or receive from Christ and our understanding of that ends up meaning

that everything we receive must fall down to us like ripe apples in a wind

storm. The truth is, however, that there are many things we receive from

God that are the direct result of having obeyed God and continued patiently

obeying until the desired result comes into being. Even our initial conversion

requires faith. (Ephesians 2:8,9)