Most people think they'd like an easy life, or at least an easier one than they're living at the present. But would you really want that? I used to think I wanted that, but over time, my opinion has definitely changed. I want a good life. I want a purposeful life. I want a life that's lived well, but I don't necessarily want it to be easy.
I have met people who have been handed relatively easy lives, and they don't impress me. More often than not, they strike me as shallow and self-absorbed. They don't make much of a contribution, don't know how to do very many things, and they tend to be emotionally fragile. That doesn't impress me, but I am impressed by the person who was able to provide an easier life for someone else. Usually, they're industrious and not easily discouraged. In fact, they probably faced adversity head-on many times during their life and emerged the victor.
Do you know the name Steve Allen? During his adult years, Steve Allen was a radio and television celebrity. He was the co-creator and original host of the Tonight Show on NBC, but he certainly didn't have an easy life growing up. His father died when he was very young, and when he was a teenager, he ran away from home with $7.00 in his pocket. He spent that money pretty quickly and nearly starved when he couldn't purchase food. Allen found himself regularly begging for a meal and rummaging through the trash to find something to eat. It was the lowest season of his life.
When things turned around for him, he often thought back to that time and what it was like for him to grow up during the Great Depression in general. His goal, like many parents of his era, was to provide an easier life for his children, and that's exactly what he did, but he eventually regretted much of how he went about doing it. As an older man, he said that he and his generation could have done a better job being present for their children, training them, and giving them their time. He felt like he over-focused on making their lives easy through material provision when he should have spent more time developing their character.
How has the Lord been developing your character? Can you trace His hand at work throughout the course of your life? What has He been teaching you along the way?
If your life and your present circumstances aren't particularly easy, don't despise that reality because I believe the Lord will use your experiences to develop your character in ways that a life of ease never could. In fact, as you walk with Him throughout the trials and tests you're facing, your confidence in what He can do will grow. He will prove that He can be trusted. He will show Himself to be completely reliable. You will see it with your own eyes, and your heart will become steady and assured.
The psalmist describes the heart of a man of character this way, "His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries." (Psalm 112:8). When the Lord uses the tests and trials of your life to develop your character, you can look at whatever you're currently facing and say, "God's got this."
Psalm 112 tells us that a person of character has a steady heart that isn't prone to fear. Such a person will face adversity, but won't be overcome by it. He or she may face adversaries, and people who directly set themselves against them, but they won't fear them because they've seen the Lord go to battle for them before, and they know He will go to battle for them again.
Sometimes in life, particularly after enduring a stretching experience, I have asked the Lord for relief. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing that. In fact, because I believe in God's omniscience, I know that He already knew I would request that. But the longer I've been walking with Him, the more I've come to understand that my greatest solace shouldn't be in the thought of events and circumstances turning around. My solace is in the fact that Jesus is present with me, regardless of what I'm called to endure.
If my confidence was in my strength or my circumstances, I would have great reason for fear because my strength and my circumstances change. The Lord is teaching me, however, to have great confidence in Him because His power is ultimate and He never changes.
Martin Luther once said, "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times." That's the kind of faith I want to possess. That's the kind of confidence I would like to experience. It's a trust in the Lord that grows so deep that we'd dare to go where He leads, and do what He prompts us to do, even if there's risk involved and our decisions don't find favor with the thinking of this fallen world.
Years ago, Frank Lloyd Wright was given the impossible task of building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. No comparable construction job ever before had been undertaken. With patience, he laid plans for the immense building in this land of earthquakes and terrible tremors. After carefully reviewing the situation, he found that eight feet below the surface of the ground lay a sixty-foot bed of soft mud. Why not float the great structure on this and in some way make it absorb the shock of the earthquake?
After four years of work, amid ridicule and jeers of skeptical onlookers, this most difficult building in the world was completed, and soon arrived the day which tested it completely. The worst earthquake in fifty-two years caused houses and buildings all around to tumble and fall in ruins. But the Imperial Hotel stood, because it was able to adjust itself to the tremors of the earth. (-A. Smith, in Resources, #2)
There are a variety of threats in our day that attempt to shake our confidence in the Lord. Some of these threats masquerade as sources of light even thought they're far from that. Jesus prophetically warned us these days would come.
““And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.””
Jesus told us that in the last days, false prophets would arise. They would excel at giving people the impression that their hearts were in the right place, and because of the general lack of spiritual discernment that would be present in the world, people would be led away from the truth by their teaching. Jesus warned us that the end times would be a lawless time, and not a particularly loving time. But the person who remains confident in Christ, the person who endures to the end with genuine faith, will experience the full effects of the salvation Jesus has granted them.
During difficult seasons of history, people commonly gravitate toward smooth talkers who say what they want to hear. The past century gives us plenty of contemporary examples of that human tendency. This is how many abusive leaders and violent dictators rise to power. They wait for people to feel shaken, then they promise solutions so long as power is entrusted to them. All they really want is the power, and once that's granted to them, they'll do whatever serves their own interests or helps them hold onto power a little longer.
This happens in spiritual contexts as well, and it involves a form of manipulation that's satanic. Satan delights to twist and undermine the truth. He wants professing believers to question Christ and His claims. He wants us to doubt the teaching and authority of Scripture. He loves when we follow trends and personalities instead of remaining confident in Christ. Following trends and personalities helps aid the process of establishing false prophets in their places of influence. Following Christ and His word, helps us root them out.
The kind of confidence the person of character demonstrates in Psalm 112 is a confidence that is the fruit of a clear conscience. It's a confidence that shows an eagerness to be near to the Lord, not far from Him. It's a confidence that rejoices in the fact that when we come to faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit transforms us from rebels who seek to avoid God into friends who can't wait to spend time with Him.
““Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” ”
Is your heart steady in Jesus? Are you confident in Christ? If not, would you like to be?
Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the light bulb. He drastically changed the way we illuminate our homes, businesses, and communities, but it took a lot of experimentation to perfect what we're able to so commonly enjoy.
One afternoon, in the presence of multiple observers, Edison asked an office boy to test a bulb prototype he had been working on. Knowing how difficult it was to make these things, the boy was rather nervous to do this, but he did what he was told. On his way to test the bulb, his nerves got the best of him and he dropped it. He was devastated, and Edison could see that.
After spending another full day re-creating the prototype, Edison summoned the same boy to assist him. He gave him the new bulb and asked him to test it. This time, the boy succeeded in completing the task.
When asked why he took this risk, Edison said that it took him a day to make a new bulb, but if he didn't give that boy a second chance to test it, that child's confidence might have been ruined for a lifetime.
Have you ever considered the fact that the Lord may be using our errors, mistakes, and low moments to build our confidence in Him?
A steady heart is a trusting heart. Jesus wants us to trust that He can save us, guide us, keep us, and eventually glorify us. The experiences we go through this side of Heaven can prove to our hearts that Jesus is faithful even when it feels like the rest of the world isn't. Even when it feels like we're being abandoned by others, we can remain confident because we know Jesus will never abandon us.
And I believe the confidence He develops within us will show up in all areas of our lives. When we leave our homes in the morning, we'll have it. When we face unfamiliar times, we'll have it. When people we love and admire disappoint us, we'll have it. When we face a need that can only be met through His miraculous intervention, we'll have the confidence to seek it.
““And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.””
I don't know what you're going through right now, but I do know the Lord is faithful. When you're facing roadblocks or going through low seasons, He hasn't abandoned you. On the contrary He's attempting to make you strong. He's using your circumstances to build your confidence. Not self-confidence, but confidence in Him.
It's the kind of Christ-empowered confidence that produces a steady heart.
It's the kind of confidence that can look at anything this world or the devil throws at us and say, "God's got this."
© John Stange, 2022
