Cast Not Away Your Confidence

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise" (Hebrews 10:35-36).
According to the Vine's Expository of New Testament Words, confidence is the assurance that leads one to stand under and endure, the belief that one is able and acceptable, and a certainty that causes one to be bold, open and plain.
If we consider all that confidence is, then it is easy to see why the devil doesn't want us to have any.  A person without confidence does not have the assurance, belief or boldness to stand on the Word of God.  Since he does not have a working faith in what God has done for him through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, he withdraws in the face of persecution.
The devil work's early in an individual's life to cast out his confidence.  Many children who are abused, rejected and neglected by their parents never develop self confidence.  They see themselves as failures and expect to fail, therefore, they usually do.  They carry great weights of guilt and confusion making confidence almost impossible.
In 2 Corinthians 2:11, it says, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices."  Satan will use guilt and shame to make us feel bad about ourselves.  He wants to separate us from God's love.  If we cannot receive God's love, there is no way to have confidence in Him.
God's love for us is a perfect love.  It is unconditional.  It is not based on us, it is based on Him and Him alone.  So when we miss it somewhere, we can confess it, receive God's love and forgiveness, and go on with our lives.
When we do not have confidence, our faith is hindered.  "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" Romans 10:17.  Nothing hinders faith like believing the devil's lies.  But when we catch hold of the truth that God's grace is available to us, and that we don't have to waste time being a "people pleaser", then the truth will make us free.  It is vain to pretend that you are free and victorious.  Confidence in the Word of God will make you free.
Just think about what God has done for you.  "{The Father} has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.  In Whom we have our redemption through His blood {which means} the forgiveness of our sins Colossians 1:13-14 (AMP).
He was our substitute.  He took our place.  Redemption is ours.  It belongs to us.  We can put our confidence in that.  This means that Satan's authority over us is broken.  We have deliverance, and we have it "now".  We are not trying to get it someday by being good.  It is a present reality in our lives because the Word of God says so.  It does not depend on the preacher, the boss man, the banker, the government, or anyone else.  It depends upon how boldly we exercise our confidence.
Some people have no confidence in who they are in Christ.  Their confidence is in how they appear to other people.  They pretend that they are happy when inside they are miserable.  They are reaching out for confidence, but in the wrong places.  People did not redeem you from the curse of the law, Jesus did.  People did not deliver you from the kingdom of darkness, Jesus did.  People did not translate you into the kingdom of light, Jesus did.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2 Corinthians 5:17.  New creatures are confident, knowing that God will be true to His Word.
Don't waste another minute in idle worship.  Get in the Word.  Believe what the bible says about you, and stand boldly against circumstance that contradicts it.  Then you will enjoy the victory that is already yours.

By: Edmund Brown