There are three keys of success in the Christian life: 1) the faith that overcomes the world, 2) our trust in the Scriptures as His inerrant Word and 3) intimate relationship with the Lord. Today we will be discussing what is confidence and how can we develop it in our lives. There are teachers that teach self-confidence is a vain thing in this world and therefore we must throw it away. There are also teachers that tell us the opposite, that we need it and we cannot survive without it. So whom should we believe?

Confidence is more fully defined in the way Jesus walked on earth. He was so confident that every time He was asked who He was, who sent Him and what is His mission, Jesus was always able to answer His critics right away. For instance, when He declared His public ministry before the Orthodox synagogue which He attended, they almost killed Him for saying that the prophecy was already fulfilled in their hearing, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners;  To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord…”(Isaiah  61:1-2).

When Jesus finished reading this text and declared it was fulfilled TODAY, all His congregation were filled with surprise and thought, is this not Jesus the son of Joseph? (see Luke 4:18-31). Rather than asking Him or inquiring where He got His bold declaration, they thought it blasphemy that He declared He was the One sent by God to fulfill these Messianic prophecies. Therefore, they rose up and brought Him outside the city and into a hill that they might throw Him down, but He simply passed away in their midst unscathed. This was the same characteristic that Jesus displayed in His ministry, every time the priests tried to catch His words that they might use it against Him. Where did He get His confidence and boldness? Again if we look back into the launching of His ministry, Jesus just came back from a 40day fasting and prayer, the Word telling us, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region” (Luke 4:14).

In another scene, after a day’s work of teaching and miracles, Jesus dismissed the people “And after bidding them farewell, He departed to the mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46). All these stories were not concocted, that though Jesus was fully divine, yet He too was human who needed rest and prayer. Prayer was the single greatest weapon He used to drive evil away from the lives of people and bring them healing, wisdom and knowledge. Because He was so intimate with the Father, and confident of His love for the people, He knew whom the Father wants to heal, deliver or give words of encouragements. In fact, this closeness was inseparable so that He even said, “I and the Father are one.” In the same way, if we will draw near to the Lord, keep prayer on our lips, we have the unfathomable riches of God on our side.

Whenever we wake up and there is a need, we can always tap to that resource and bring healing when it is needed, food when it is provision, deliverance when it is freedom, vision when it is blindness and life when it is death, comfort when it is anguish.  “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).