Post By: Angela Parlin
I started this year reading through Psalms slowly. I was learning to sit alone with God to pray, making it a practice to adore God each day. I quickly understood it wasn’t coincidence at all that I had begun this reading plan along with the desire to grow in prayer.
The Psalms filled my mind with ideas and images about who God is and what He does.
God is the One enthroned in heaven, Most High, maker of all, majestic, righteous ruler & judge, our Rock, our refuge, our strength, the One who sees, and these are only the beginning.
As for His actions, in the first few chapters alone, God surrounds the righteous with His favor like a shield. He watches over them and leads them. He blesses all who take refuge in Him. He listens to their prayers and answers them. He delivers, gives relief, disciplines, and judges evil. He fills hearts with joy and peace and brings prosperity.
God is King of kings, who made the world and owns the world and rules the world and sustains it.
So then, what does all this mean about us?
God chooses to be involved in the details of our lives, we learn in Psalms. And also?
He is worthy of our confidence and trust.
David, who wrote many of the Psalms, had such deep and abiding confidence in God. I’m convicted by it, in the area of belief.
Don’t get me wrong–I don’t usually struggle with doubting God. But sometimes I struggle with doubting me. Deep down, that’s an issue of confidence in God—that He is who He says He is, that He does what He says He’ll do, and especially, that He does it for me.
I do believe; Lord, help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)
I don’t think we need more confidence in ourselves. Because at some point in life, even the most self-confident among us will experience their confidence shaken. We are human, and in this state, we are dependent on God, whether we admit that or not. It doesn’t matter how much confidence you were born with or how much you developed through the circumstances of your life.
What matters is that we hope and trust in God.
At the beginning of our school day one morning, I asked my kids what they think it means to have confidence in God.
One of them said, “You just trust Him, because you know He’s God.”
Another said, “It’s like Hope. You have confidence because you hope in God.”
Doing a quick word study using confidence, I found the Greek word parresia, and the Hebrew word, mibtach.
Parresia allows us to look ahead with confidence–because we know Who is in control. With parresia, we have freedom and boldness, but only because of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Mibtach carries the idea of security, trust, hope, and certainty.
Mibtah assumes our confidence is based on the object of our confidence.
It’s the word King David used when he prayed in Psalm 71~
Lord, You have been my hope, my confidence since my youth.
That was David’s beautiful confession, and his story. Because of what Jesus has done for you and me, this can also become the story of our lives.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. Jeremiah 17:7
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Angela Parlin is a wife and mom to 3 rowdy boys and 1 sweet girl. In addition to spending time with friends and family, she loves to read and write, spend days at the beach, watch romantic comedies, and organize closets. But most of all, she loves Jesus and writes to call attention to the beauty of life in Christ, even when that life collaborates with chaos. Join her at www.angelaparlin.com, So Much Beauty In All This Chaos.
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