The Right Kind of ConfidentSample

If you believe in Jesus, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord is in your heart. This Spirit frees you from bondage to other fears. The right kind of fear frees you from the wrong kind of fear. Reverent fear calms apprehensive fear. “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ ” (Rom. 8:15).

The doctrine of fear isn’t some pie-in-the-sky, boring, irrelevant theory. It offers you real, down-to-earth, practical hope and help in your battle against worry, doubt, and insecurity. The fantastic news is that God has already given you everything you need for victory. If you believe in Jesus, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord already lives within you.

Popular wisdom says the way to gain confidence is to have a bigger view of self. The Bible turns this strategy on its head. It teaches that what we need is not a bigger view of self but a bigger view of God. We don’t need less fear—we need more! If we want to grow more confident, we need to get serious about the process of working out our salvation with fear and trembling. We must embrace awe, obedience, devotion, worship, and trust.

How do we get more of the right kind of fear and more of the right kind of confidence? The Bible provides the answer to this too.

We ask. We seek. We knock. . . .

When we ask, seek, and knock, our heavenly Father will surely answer. He will fill and empower us with the Spirit of Fear who brings us strong confidence.

Prayer

Father, I confess that I have harbored fears and worry in my heart. Please forgive me, and please help me to banish them. Amen.