I was very blessed this evening in reading Isaiah 55, hearing of God's goodness towards us sinners. As someone who often takes pride in my knowledge of scripture I find it awesome how God turns it around to show me how little I know. Not only that, but knowledge of the Word without wisdom to apply it makes one twisted and confused individual. However God is gracious and is so quick to give me that wisdom when I ask for it. I just want to be sure to share that the first wisdom given to us by God is to show us how Christ's blood is applied upon us filthy sinners. That is through confessing our sins, being transparent, allowing the Light to shine through us, revealing and casting aside the darkness that sin brings inside us.
I go about thinking I am so great, mistaking my pride for some sort of "spiritual" confidence. It's one thing to be confident in our salvation but when we try to take what we learn in the word and try to force it on others without any care for them whatsoever it immediatly becomes a bond of legalism. Brothers and sisters, we need to be confident in our Saviour, and when that is true of us we shall see how little confidence we can put in ourselves (Zero confidence to be exact). That's one thing I struggle with each and every day and must simply seek God while He may be found, to sit at His feet and be content in Him, not to make myself feel high and mighty about how much I know but to show how awesome God is in how much He knows (which is everything by the way). "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord" Amen huh?
As we seek God and simply always go to Him, acknowledging Him in everything we do, He says that we "will go out with joy and be led forth with peace...". A lack of peace is the most terrible thing I think a believer can experience. That lack of peace combined with self-confidence creates a miserable Christian, not taking hold of the promises we have recieved from our Great God and ending in self pity whenever we fall short of our own carnal and spiritual goals.
Simply put, take no confidence in anything in yourself, repent of your pride, your bitterness, your disbelief, ask the Lord to show you your places of sin and when He does: Repent of it. Jesus died so that we could be freed of those things, to get rid of the guilt that accompanies our sin. That is true freedom: Being able to say we are wrong and He is right!
