Segment 4.
The Presence of God Personal Confidence
There is really nothing quite as satisfying as the quiet confidence that OMNIPOTENCE is operative in our personal experience.
The Bible tells us that we can be confident of this very thing: "that he who began a good work in us will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ."
Well? Has God begun a work in me . . . or not?
If so, just how has it affected my sense of confidence?
Some might be a little edgy about this. Never thought about God having anything to do with my confidence. Not sure how to act. What do I have to do to make it work?
These are questions asked by those who just don’t "get it." They struggle instead with the notion that intimate relationship with God has something to do with "religion," or at the very least, religious form. To these dear folks, intimacy with God has to do with "following the rules."
Indeed, many of us are much too busy being "Christians," -- practicing religion, (we get hung up in the "ought-to's" and the "shoulds") to even be aware that God is does things himself -- in real time -- that He interacts on a daily basis with humans on earth. Practicing our religion has little or nothing to do with encountering God on an individual, personal basis.
Often, maybe most of the time, we are not even aware that God is guiding and directing us. We are just not tuned in to his presence.
This is a very present danger for you and me! We come to Sunday School, attend worship service, serve on committees, tithe, visit homeless shelters or get involved in some social outreach program in the church. All these things are good, but without tangible connectedness to our God of Love, they are what the ancient apostle described as "sounding brass, or clashing cymbals."
So, exactly, what is it that God Requires of you?
Little passage from the Old Testament says it best. Comes from the prophet Micah, sixth chapter, eighth verse:
- Do good
- Love mercy
- Walk humbly with your God.
Doesn't sound like a big deal to me. What do you think?
SO, what does God require of you? He wants you to be and do what he created you to be and do. Essentially, he wants you to be what he created -- you! You are the creative handiwork of the almighty Creator! You are the one and only – no one else can be you. You can be confident that God has made you, has created you in a way that pleases him, and in a way that he can utilize in his purposes. Allow yourself the latitude to be what God has made you.
Life is complex so such an idea of simply "being yourself," seems grossly simplistic. What do you do, for example, when faced with a moral decision?
Again, this is not astrophysics. It is not brain surgery. This is not one of Mr. Einstein's mathematical formulas. You simply choose to do right. As a dear old preacher once said, "Do right 'til the stars fall!" This may be painful, but if you do right, you can't go wrong. What is complex about that?
Even when you are faced with decisions that aren't so black and white, when you are faced with a decision between polarities that aren't clear in "rightness" or "wrongness." In such cases -- and such cases often occur -- you do what you believe to be right, using the good judgment God gave you, trusting him to lead you.
When it's right, it will come with a sense of peace. When we turn something over to God, the minimum wage for that is peace. "Let the peace of God rule in your heart."
Remember that it is God . . .
Who works in you both to make decisions and to make decisions he will endorse and affirm . . .
Years ago, as a young minister, I was driving from Los Angeles south on the Santa Ana freeway. I was alone and praying. (You should know than when I pray while driving, I do so with my eyes open.) One day I got in trouble with a policeman doing that, but that's another story. This day I was praying earnestly. I wanted a "word" from God. I wanted him to tell me in more precise terms exactly what he wanted me to do with my life.
Almost immediately words began to fill my head. They seemed to me to come from outside my skull. Like Someone was pouring these words into my brain. Words that formed a prayer to God. I felt it was God telling me what to ask him for. At 65-70 mph I fumbled for a pen in my pocket, reached for the notebook in the passenger seat and began writing (Nobody said I was the sharpest tool in the toolbox ) . . .
Went like this . . .
If I believe in my heart that Jesus is LORD. If I have no trouble declaring to the world my belief in him and that God raised him from the dead and that he is alive today and offers redemption to corrupt and depraved human beings, if I have been "regenerated" by the Holy Spirit,
then I need not be timid about being Myself.
I am free to . . . BE!
No one on this earth has the right to interfere with your relationship with God, or to tell you how your faith should be shaped or molded. There are no more Messiahs. Only Jesus can be that. There are no spiritual giants on the earth that can tell you what the Spirit of God is saying to you, or how you should speak of Jesus and his Father.
God is your Father. Jesus is your Jesus. The Holy Spirit is your Holy Spirit.
So enjoy the confidence to be yourself. To be what God created you to be. Don't be afraid to make your mark, trusting completely in the presence of God in your life.
God has given you, indeed he has given us all a written guide. It is called the Bible. The Old and New Testament. We all desperately need to learn what is in it, and from it glean its wisdom and understanding.
We desperately need to pray -- to come boldly -- before the throne of Grace to offer ourselves to God, to pray on behalf of others, to express our desires and to hear his voice.
Cooperate with the Spirit of God in ridding your life of evil motivations and sinful urges. This will be a struggle, one in which you will not succeed completely in this earthly life. But God will succeed both now in the sacrifice of his blessed Son on the Cross, and in the future when your sinful nature will no longer be a part of who you are.
Be confident in what God has made you. Be confident that he will perform his work in you both now and forever.
