Gaining a Confidence that Lasts

I am priceless to God.

If you’ve got it in you, I challenge you to repeat it out loud right now. That’s not some “forward-this-if-you-really-love-God” challenge, mind you. However, the degree to which you can say that and mean it, or say it and rest in that reality, is a great indicator of how far that truth has penetrated into the foundations of your heart and mind.

I watch people all the time who attempt to substitute different things into their foundation. Sooner or later, life has it’s way — circumstances change, people prove unreliable, storms of life come — and the result is inevitably the same: leaning. Like the builders of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (now a shocking 18 ft off of center at the top!), people have underestimated the softness of the ground they are building on. It’s only a matter of time before it all comes tumbling down — and in the case of people, that means profound self-doubt, deepening insecurities and, often times, blaming God.

However, there are always two roads.

Take a look in John 11 at one of the most famous resurrection stories of all time – the raising of Lazarus. After failing to “come through” on the request to come heal a sick Lazarus, Laz’s two sisters, Mary and Martha, are distraught when he dies. They seemed to have pin their hopes on Jesus and He failed. The ground under their feet seemed to be eroding with every passing moment.

But when Jesus shows up, you see two very different responses:

1. Martha: Despite feeling the sorrow of her brother’s death, she made a crucial decision to continue exercising faith in Jesus. Even in her shock and sadness, she doesn’t risk her heart on the external circumstances staring her in the face. She let God define her circumstances instead of letting her circumstances define God.

2. Mary: Despite an almost identical response to Martha, Mary takes another road — one that opts out of faith in Jesus. She has let the tragedy rob her of faith. Instead of listening to the same voice that appealed to Martha’s heart to have faith, Mary chooses the voice of self-pity — and insecurity rules the day.

Our lives haven’t always gone the way we’d prefer. Sometimes, the unexpected has been devastating. But in the end, life comes down to who you choose to listen to, and who you choose to believe. We can choose to play the old tapes (oftentimes internalized into our own voice) that tell us why we are worthless, why life never goes our way, why God has forgotten about you… why our lack of security is valid.

Or, like a stonecold dead Lazarus, we can respond to the voice of Jesus, shouting out to us in the tomb. It only took 3 words from Jesus to overpower the death that had Lazarus in its grip.

What is He shouting to you today? What Truth does He offer that has the power to dislodge the deep-seated lies sown into your heart? No matter what road you’re walking right now, you can choose the Martha road — you can choose to listen to what Jesus says and believe Him — and experience a Lazarus resurrection!

3 words from Jesus raised Lazarus to life that day.

So what could 5 do to your confidence?

I am priceless to God.

Pastor Pete Hise, Quest Community Church, Lexington KY

28 May 2013