How confident are you that God will do all that He has promised to do in your life—right now, today, right where this finds you? Regardless of your response, after reading from the Word of God, I promise that your confidence will soar!
I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced, therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. (Isaiah 50:6-8)
These are the prophetic words of Isaiah, written some 700 years before our Lord Jesus Christ lived them out in His obedience unto death, even death on a cross. Oh, the complete confidence our Lord Jesus had in His Father, in spite of the crushing abuse He would endure! He willingly gave His back to the whip and His beard to the wicked who would smite His cheeks. Then He offered His brow to receive the crown of thorns and His hands and feet to the nails. Yet through every act of torturous cruelty, His cosmic confidence in His Father sustained Him. “Father,” He cried at the very end, “into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
So . . . where in your life have you been lacking confidence? In your profession? In a relationship? In your schooling? In your health? In your finances? Remember these words of our Lord:
But the Lord God helps me!
If the Lord God helped Jesus, the Lord God will help you also, because He has adopted you as His son or daughter. As a child of God, you can have the same confidence Jesus had, because the Lord God loves all those who are His. You, too, can “set your face like a flint,” regardless of the fiery furnace you are facing today. Go boldly before the throne of grace and cry out to your God, knowing you have already been heard before the first word was spoken. When you know with utter certainty that you have omnipotence on your side, is there anything too hard to face?
God is not only for you, He is with you and in you. He has called you into His perfect plan and has given you everything you need to do all He has called you to do. Let not doubt delay you. Let not fear freak you out. Jesus faced something none of us will ever face when He cried out to His Father, “Why has thou forsaken me?” Remember, Jesus was forsaken because of you and me and all those who will put their trust in Him by grace through faith.
Let this truth strengthen your resolve to rise above the storm winds that might be blowing today, and know you shall not be put to shame. Your Savior has secured every spiritual blessing for you. You need only walk with the “cosmic confidence” of Jesus Christ, knowing that the Lord God who helps you will never leave you nor forsake you. You have His Word on it!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 