COMING WITH CONFIDENCE -- Monday:
" In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him . . . Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." (Eph 3:12; Heb 10:35)
No one can draw close to the Lord without a measurable degree of confidence. Just as the consciousness sin thrust Adam away from God, causing him to hide, so it continues to drive people from the presence of the Lord. However, this condition can, and must, be overcome! Believers are exhorted, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Heb 10:19). Notice, "boldness," or confidence, is something that can be possessed: i.e., "HAVING boldness." Men do not have to come in cringing fear before the God of all the earth. Both Scripture and exalted reason confirm this to be the case. "In Whom (Jesus) WE HAVE boldness and access by the faith of (in) Him" (Eph 3:12). Jesus opened the way to God, and faith enables us to travel it with confidence!
"Boldness," or confidence, speaks of expectancy. As we come to the Lord, we expect to be received because of Christ. We do not approach the "Father of lights" to see if He will receive us, but because He has already received us in the Son. We are "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph 1:6), and He greatly delights in our unreserved persuasion of that reality. This is the "full assurance of understanding," the declared result of hearts being "knit together in love" (Col 2:2).
To "enter" the "holiest" is to allow the Lord to dominate your heart and mind. It involves the subjugation of lesser thoughts that "exalt" themselves against "the knowledge of God" (2 Cor 10:5ff). Fleshly preferences and circumstance are willingly forfeited in order to bask in the light of the greater glory. You cannot "enter" the holiest without personal effort and a persuasion of the goodness of the Lord. What is more, no hope of salvation is held out to those who refuse to enter into the presence of the Lord. This is the purpose of salvation: to enable us to "come to the Father" (John 14:6). To fail to do this is to neglect to appropriate the atonement, or reconciliation (Rom 5:11). It is necessary to say these things because of the rareness of this perspective in our time. It is indicative of a great falling away.
Coming into the presence of God with confidence is drawing "near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb 10:22). Herein is the secret to spiritual stability: holding on to "the full assurance of hope" (Heb 6:11). Those who lack this assurance have little, if any, spiritual strength. They are not able to withstand the assaults of the evil one because they live closer to him than to the God who redeemed them. Life can be viewed in the following way. We cannot avoid being close to one of these realms: the one dominated by Satan, or the one dominated by the Spirit. One is a realm of darkness and spiritual ignorance, the other of light and illumination. All of life is actually moving closer to one of these realms. Satan has already been expelled from the presence of the Lord. As you press close to God, you leave the place dominated by the "old serpent." How glorious, therefore, is the "hope" that anchors us "within the veil," the "most holy place" (Heb 6:19).
During the past few years of my life, I have become acutely aware of the near-total absence of God-consciousness in the professed church. A level of disinterest in the things of God exists that is staggering. Times devoted to the nurturing of the soul (wherever such times still exist) are noted for brevity and infrequency. It is not unusual for more time to be devoted to picnics and games than to such occasions. All of this betrays a sad condition.
"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward" (Heb 10:35). That confidence, or boldness, will appropriate mercy for you! It will procure "grace to help in time of need" (Heb 4:16). Do not discard the confidence gendered by faith in preference of the "pleasures of sin for a season."
Scripture depicts confidence as being lost by casting it away – thrusting it from us because of a desire for lesser things. The Spirit must be quenched to lose confidence. The loss of assurance can only be realized by turning to the cursed order. God declares such to be an act of the will, whereby confidence is "cast away." God's people are admonished to NOT let this happen!
Just as confidence enables the individual to come before the Lord to obtain mercy and find grace to help, so a lack of confidence prohibits that from happening. Many a soul fails to obtain grace simply because they have lived too far from the Lord, and thus have no confidence to approach Him concerning their need. But for that soul who is built up in the most holy faith, enveloped with a confident spirit, the good things of God and His tender compassions will mark their way.
PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You in Jesus name for the greatness of Your salvation, that has opened heaven for such a one as me.