Article

 Samuel Ferrell - November, 2025

In whom does your confidence stand?

Psalm 118:8-9 ESV - It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. 

Psalm 40:1-4 ESV - I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! 

Here’s the truth we need to understand in the context of these two passages: we need the Gospel today as much as you did when you first accepted Christ as your salvation.

David was a man after God’s own heart, filled with the blessings of God and chosen for his sacred duty as the king of Israel. Yet, he was always reliant upon his salvation. Despite his status before Israel, he referred to himself as poor and needy. Despite his many victories, he was weak and relied completely on God’s strength. Despite his many capabilities, talents, accomplishments, and riches, his confidence was never placed in himself. That’s the point we need to understand: David had no self-confidence. His confidence was elsewhere.

We need to separate confidence from esteem. 

Esteem is respect and honor toward something. As creatures made in the image of God, we do ourselves a disservice to have low self-esteem. God has created us out of his love and formed us in His image, so we should all regard ourselves and each other as imagers of God that are all in need of God’s grace. Life is sacred: no question about it. Confidence, however, is a different thing to be understood. 

Confidence is the trust that is placed in an individual to accomplish something. When I place confidence in myself and my own capabilities, that means I lack confidence toward other things, other people, and so on. Confidence does not grow or shrink; it does not become strong or weak. It changes places. It moves from one thing to another. We don’t merely lose confidence in another person when they fail to keep their word, we gain confidence in something else. It’s like energy. It does grow, shrink, become more strong or weak: it just goes somewhere else. 

Now apply that to us.

Who do we trust to accomplish the task Christ has given to the church? Certainly not us. Who has our confidence to establish the work of the Lord? If it was within ourselves, it would have failed a long time ago. In fact, many who have made themselves the recipients of their own confidence and trust in ministry have been found wanting and insufficient. Do you know why? Because the flesh is too weak and stained by sin to accomplish the work of the Lord. All of us are totally incapable of doing so.

Our faith is outside of ourselves. Our righteousness is outside of ourselves. Our hope is outside of ourselves. Thus, our confidence must be outside of ourselves. You will see that anything we try to do within ourselves is going to fail.

As Christians,

1. Our Confidence is Not in Ourselves

2 Corinthians 11:30 ESV - If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Pride is the result of placing too much confidence in yourself. You think you’re good enough. You think you’re capable of doing something. You think that you're the only one who is right and everybody else is inferior. That’s what pride is. Pride will kill you.

We have no reason to trust our flesh with the things of the Lord. Seriously. Time and time again, we prove that nothing can be done except by the hand of the Lord. It is from the Lord that we receive our strength, and it is the entirety of Christ that clothes us with His armor. The flesh profits nothing. Our depraved humanity is incapable of profiting anything that pertains to Godliness. We must get this concept of self-sufficiency out of our heads.

We don’t have enough willpower to act Godly, be Godly, or remain Godly.

We are weak…

Somehow, in the strangest way, that was Paul’s strength. He never claimed victory over weakness. In fact, God never granted it to Him. Paul found greater comfort in the fact that God would grant eternal life to a continually weak man like himself. But why? Why did Paul boast of weaknesses rather than strengths? Why didn’t Paul plead for deliverance from His weaknesses?

He did, but God answered.

He said,

2. God's Grace Deserves the Fulness of Our Confidence

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 ESV - To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations (which Paul had received from God), a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

You see the picture that Paul is painting here? The only object of your confidence is that which comes to you when you are weak: the grace of God! Everything that we are today is from the grace of God through Jesus Christ. We have no reason to boast within ourselves of this precious hope that we have. All glory goes to God alone.

Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV - But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Your conversion leaves no room for you to boast of anything you have done. Your Christian walk leaves no room for you to boast of anything you have done. You brought nothing to the table, and you still bring nothing to the table; Christ brings everything. 

The only thing we can ever present of ourselves to God is our weakness and insufficiency, but Christ gives unto us His grace. That is sufficient! That is enough for our salvation. Nothing else can grant us eternal life. Nothing else can grant us victory in this battle. End of conversation.

Scottish poet Horatius Bonar once wrote,

Upon a life I did not live,

upon a death I did not die;

another's life, another's death,

I stake my whole eternity.

We need the Gospel today as much as we did when we first accepted Christ as our salvation. Jesus Christ is our life, our death, and our resurrection. This alone is our only hope. In Christ alone, we have our hope. All of Christ for all of life. That is the solid ground upon which we must stand. The hymn we often sing, In Christ Alone, says:

No guilt in life, no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From life's first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

In Christ alone, my confidence will stand. 

Who is your confidence today?