I bright future is easy to see when you’ve got a shipload of money and your career is going from strength to strength. When relationships with loved ones are flourishing and you’re living the dream.
But if you base your confidence in things that can be lost in an instant, then don’t be too confident about your confidence. When I look at friends who have houses and cars paid off and have reached the pinnacle of their careers, a small part of me becomes concerned. We don’t have a house, our car isn’t paid off and I can retire next week… for 2 days! The fact is, I’ll probably have to work until I fall over one day. I have many friends who are in the same boat. Some of them feel as if they are sinking. But some of us are only concerned for a few moments before we find confidence in our futures.
I have been blessed with the most amazing wife and sons. We are so close as a family and I don’t understand what it feels like to have marital issues. But I have friends who are going through very troubling times in their marriages and relationships. They are awesome people and so are their spouses, but they just can’t seem to work things out. In spite of the fact that their hearts are aching, they still keep going and have confidence in their futures.
The reality is that your financial status can change. You can lose your job, your house and your car in an instant. Your relationship can fall apart. Your health can take a turn for the worse. It sounds negative but it’s reality. If we find our confidence in these things that are temporary, then we will find that our confidence is also temporary. People say that the only constant in life is change. If that is true then we can never continuously be confident.
But here’s the thing that changes everything. God is constant! He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Our moods change, our attitudes change, our likes and dislikes change, but God stays the same. In the same way that I see the sun rise every morning (when I’m awake), I know that the SON has risen and is alive and real. I know that this life is not all there is. I know that eternity is real. If you don’t believe that, then you’ll need to find your confidence in temporary things. I find my confidence in Jesus Christ. I don’t use this faith I have to judge others and to look down on those who believe differently. My life needs to reflect what I stand for as a Christian, and that is LOVE. I must love everybody! It doesn’t mean I agree with everything that everybody does. It does mean that I love them in spite of how they feel about me and about my faith.
My future is bright, not because my circumstances are good, but because my God is great. Our time on earth is nothing compared to eternity waiting for us all. So even if my circumstances here on earth aren’t perfect, I know that there’s an eternity of perfect circumstances waiting for me. And by the way… success shouldn’t be measured by the thickness of your wallet or the size of your office. It is measured by the lives that were positively affected by your presence.
So you can choose to have temporary confidence in temporary things, or unchanging confidence in the unchanging God!
Mark Davidson
