CONFIDENCE

Today's reading: Job 3-4

"Does your reverence for God give you no confidence? Shouldn't you believe that God will care for those who are upright?" Job 4:6 NLT

I'm fairly certain at one point in your Christian walk you have counseled a friend to be strong in the Lord. To not lose hope. To set their eyes, heart and mind on Christ. To believe the promises of His Word. To trust that God is with them, for them and working through them.

I'm pretty sure you have.

I'm confident your words were given in love. Provided with grace. Spoken with hope. Offered as encouragement.

But can I ask you this...

Those same words you have doled out as prescriptive, faith-boosting and with God's blessings--do you believe them for yourself?

There is a very good likelihood that our friends, as they minister to us in word and deed, are taking their cues from us.

They are saying what we have said to them.

They are speaking the truths we have spoken to them.

They are believing for us what we at one time or another believed for them.

They are encouraging us to stand on the promises we asked them to stand firmly upon.

So now, in the middle of this, are you taking your own advice?