Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”– when you have it with you. (Proverbs 3:25-28 ESV)

What an interesting challenge. In short, we can measure the level of confidence we have in the LORD by how we live. If the Lord is truly our confidence or security, certain things ought to be true of how we live. Let me list them for you:

1. We should not live in fear of the unsettled chaos of life (v. 25) – We have to admit that we live in a world of uncertainty. The feel of our culture is nervous anxiety – medical costs are jumping through the roof; our political landscape is very unsettling and leaves many very uncertain as to what the future looks like; the financial pressures of life can become very overwhelming; morality in our culture is firmly camped on an “anything goes” attitude and certain fundamental core traditions are deteriorating right in front of us. In the face of all this the LORD is our confidence and security in life. If we lose our freedoms in our culture we can still stand firm in our freedom in Christ; if we lose our possessions our security for life is in Christ; if we lose relationships we still belong to the family of God; if we lose our confidence God is greater than our hearts. He is the anchor of our lives, not our stuff.

2. Wisdom will teach us to learn and live not live and learn (v. 26b) – The text tells us “because the LORD will be our confidence (He) will keep your foot from being caught.” Much of the way we learn is we make choices, we find out what works and what does not work, and hopefully learn from our mistakes and make better choices by not repeating the same mistakes. There is no way to escape that entirely, but there are other ways to figure out the best path for our life. If the LORD is our confidence, and we learn to value the truth of His Word, we can learn first and then choose our direction. His wisdom will help us avoid the pitfalls and landmines in life without making that mistake of trusting in our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). If we are not confident about the Lord or feel we cannot trust His Word, we may treat it as suggestions rather than His mandate for how we live.

3. When we are truly secure and our confidence is in Christ, we become generous people (v. 27-28) – This has been a struggle for me; in part, that I am learning not to be a control monger of my resources. I often throw this “selfishness” under the umbrella of “stewardship” and have not learned to meet the needs of others even when I have resources because I want to save the money for “my thing”. I have plans for that money, for me and my family, and have not learned to be generous by living with the confidence that the LORD will provide for our needs. But the truth of the Scripture is: that being ready to respond to the needs of others when we are able to actually do it, is a struggle for many. When our confidence is firmly in Christ we become generous towards others, with no strings attached. It is the mark of those who find their confidence in Christ.

Sincerely in Christ,

Pastor Brad