What does it mean to have confidence in the lord?
What are you confident in?
Better yet, what does confidence even mean?
Psalms 40: Verse 5
5 Blessed is the one who put his confidence in Adonai, who has not turned to the arrogant, nor to those who fall into falsehood.
Well, the English word for confidence is defined as thus:
a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances
faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way
the quality or state of being certain
: a relation of trust or intimacy
: reliance on another's discretion
: support especially in a legislative body
: a communication made in confidence
Lots of different meanings.
Lots of different contexts.
The AHLB defines confidence as such:
Bet - tet - hhet
The Bet is the picture of the tent floor or layout. It means the family or the house of the family of the patriarch. Such as the “house of Jacob”. It can also mean in, inside, within as a family resides inside a house.
The Tet is a picture of a wicker basket or container. Something very important to the nomadic Hebrews. The basket would be used to catch fish. The letter means basket, contain, store and clay.
The Hhet is a picture of the tent wall. The wall would mean a sense of protection from the elements, outside enemies, divide the men/women sections of a tent or, in the secular sense, those that are outside the tent.
Putting them together gives us the following:
Cling co: ? ab: Security: A holding onto something or someone by clinging or confiding.
V) - Cling: [freq. 120] (vf: Paal, Hiphil) |kjv: trust, confidence, secure| {H982}
Nm - Security: A state or place of safety. [freq. 42] |kjv: safely, safety, careless, safe, secure, assurance| {H983}
df1) - Secure: A state or place of safety. [freq. 1] |kjv: secure| {H987}
ef1) - Trust: A clinging onto someone or something for support or security. [freq. 1] |kjv: confidence| {H985}
hm) - Confidence: Clinging onto someone or something else for support or safety. [freq. 15] |kjv: confidence, trust, sure, hope| {H4009}
ejm) - Hope: A trust in a future outcome. [freq. 3] |kjv: confidence, hope| {H986
The most common is to cling to something in the sense of of being secure. To be contained in the house separated from the outside elements.
The word is also used as a form of HOPE.
So back to the previous question.
Do you have confidence in Adonai?
Do you cling to his ways? Do you cling to his commands? Do you Love him and dwell in his tent?
Jesus is quite clear.
John 14:15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”
Let us pray.
Today, Repent for the times we have not had confidence in the Lord. Job talks about how those had confidence in their own ways. Those who clung to the ways of the arrogant. David mentions them in psalms as well. Let us repent of clinging to our own ways.
Pray that we might be strengthened to cling to Abba. To dwell in his safety and to WALK with the integrity and humbleness required by such a revelation.
Pray that we might show people the confidence of the Lord. That he is worth trusting.
Pray that we might forgive those that have wronged us. Release them. Do not have confidence in the anger. In the justification. Forgive and ask for forgiveness for not releasing them.
Finally,
Jeremiah 17:5-7
5 Thus says Adonai:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
and depends on flesh as his arm,
and whose heart turns from Adonai.
6 For he will be like a bush in the desert.
He cannot see goodness when it comes,
but will dwell in parched places in the wilderness—
a salt land where no one lives.
7 Blessed is the one who trusts in Adonai,
whose confidence is in Adonai.
8 For he will be like a tree planted by the waters,
spreading out its roots by a stream.
It has no fear when heat comes,
but its leaves will be green.
It does not worry in a year of drought,
nor depart from yielding fruit.