When Self-Confidence Is Not A Good Thing

by Kevin Burton

   I look at the world. I look at my life and all the things undone, that need to be done. I look at my strengths and weaknesses – and see nothing but weakness.

   Yes, the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. But be honest, too often even the spirit is lukewarm in its willingness.

   On life’s highway, in my own navigational powers there is no exit ramp I can take to get me safely home. All hope is lost and I am lost with it.

   Thanks be to God there is a promise in Psalm 138, which is the focus of a recent message from Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life radio ministry. Begg highlights Psalm 138, verse 8 and I am adding verse 7 to it:

   “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands (Psalm 138:7-8 NKJV).

   In baseball there is a winning pitcher and sometimes another pitcher credited with s “save,” a statistic for preserving wins.

   In this Christian life, there is victory in Jesus and in none other. The self-confidence that I have at times in earthly pursuits, does not enter here.

   The psalmist makes that point, as Begg explains.

   “It is clear that the confidence that the psalmist expresses is a divine confidence,” Begg writes. “He did not say, ‘I have enough grace to perfect that which concerns me—my faith is so steady that it will not falter—my love is so warm that it will never grow cold—my resolution is so firm that nothing can move it.’”

    “No, his dependence was on the Lord alone. If we display a confidence that is not grounded on the Rock of ages, our confidence is worse than a dream; it will fall upon us and cover us with its ruins, to our sorrow and confusion.”

   “The psalmist was wise,” Begg wrote, “he rested on nothing less than the Lord’s work. It is the Lord who has begun the good work within us; it is He who has carried it on; and if He does not finish it, it never will be completed. If there is one stitch in the celestial garment of our righteousness that we must insert ourselves, then we are lost.”

   “But this is our confidence—what the Lord begins, He completes. He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do,” Begg wrote.

   Maybe you noticed at the beginning of this post how I talked about what I was looking at – the world, my workload, my powers. What a different tale I could weave if my eyes were on Jesus, and stayed there.

  “Unbelief insinuates: ‘You will never be able to stand. Look at the evil of your heart—you can never conquer sin; remember the sinful pleasures and temptations of the world that beset you—you will be certainly allured by them and led astray,’”  Begg wrote.

   “True, we would certainly perish if left to our own strength. If by ourselves we navigate the very frail vessels of our lives over so rough a sea, we might well give up the voyage in despair.”

   “But thanks be to God, He will complete that which concerns us and bring us to the desired haven. We can never be too confident when we confide in Him alone, and never too eager to have such a trust.”