Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Daily Devotional Day 4: Be Confident in God

Daily Devotional: BE!

Day 4: Be Confident in God


When our life experience seems unbearably difficult, and the problems we face seem insurmountable, we can still have confidence in God to make a way out of what seems like “no way”, because He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, according to His word.


Hope is the confident expectation of good, because God has given each of us a measure of faith, according to His word, to believe that God is good to all that He has created, and especially to those who believe Him. 


So, let’s grow our faith and confidence in God a little more today. Let’s see what God did through those who walked with Him before us. 


Moses writes, in Deuteronomy 7:17-19 [AMP]


17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I am; how can I dispossess them?’ 

18 you shall not be afraid of them; you shall remember [with confidence] what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt— 

19 the great trials which you saw with your own eyes, and the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.”

KEY: Whatever causes us fear, worry, anxiety, and stress in our life experience, the Word of God teaches us to remember what God did before, on our behalf, so that we can confidently trust and rely on Him to intervene again, to protect and deliver us from the evil one.

King David’s life experience was not without difficulty. Even though he was anointed by God to be king of Israel and Judah, he was continually pursued, with the intent to assassinate him before he could take the throne. 


Even after he was crowned, his life was not without continual harassment, and battles to retain the territory God gave him to reign over. He endured great hardship, loss, and even ill health, and severe pain.


He writes, in Psalm 38:7 “My back is filled with searing pain, there is no health in my body."


And in Psalm 56:2-4

2 “They that lie in wait for me would swallow me up or trample me all day long, for they are many who fight against me, O Most High!


But this is his answer to his own frustration with his circumstance, as he encourages himself:


3 “What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You.

4 By [the help of] God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear. What can man, who is flesh, do to me?”


But, look what God did to reward his faithful confidence in God.

1 Chronicles 17 [AMPC]

17 “As David sat in his house, he said to Nathan the prophet, Behold, I dwell in a house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remains under tent curtains.

2 Then Nathan said to David, Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.

3 And that same night the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

4 Go and tell David My servant, Thus says the Lord: You shall not build Me a house to dwell in,

5 For I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel from Egypt until this day; but I have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.

6 Wherever I have walked with all Israel, did I say a word to any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to feed My people, saying, Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?

7 Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over My people Israel.

8 And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make your name like the name of the great ones of the earth.

9 Also I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the first,

10 Since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. Moreover, I will subdue all your enemies. Furthermore, I foretell to you that the Lord will build you a house (a blessed posterity).

11 And it shall come to pass that when your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

12 He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.

13 I will be his father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy and steadfast love away from him, as I took it from him [King Saul] who was before you.

14 But I will settle [a]him (Him) in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his (His) throne shall be established forevermore.

15 According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

16 And David the king went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house and family, that You have brought me up to this?

17 And yet this was a small thing in Your eyes, O God; for You have spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God!

18 What more can David say to You for thus honoring Your servant? For You know Your servant.

19 O Lord, for Your servant’s sake and in accord with Your own heart, You have wrought all this greatness, to make known all these great things.

20 O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God beside You, according to all that our ears have heard.

21 And what nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to Himself as a people, making Yourself a name by great and terrible things, by driving out nations from before Your people, whom You redeemed out of Egypt?

22 You made Your people Israel Your own forever, and You, Lord, became their God.

23 Therefore now, Lord, let the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house be established forever, and do as You have said.

24 Let it be established and let Your name [and the character that name denotes] be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God; and the house of David Your servant will be established before You.

25 For You, O my God, have told Your servant that You will build for him a house (a blessed posterity); therefore Your servant has found courage and confidence to pray before You.

26 And now, Lord, You are God, and have promised this good thing to Your servant.

27 Therefore may it please You to bless the house (posterity) of Your servant, that it may continue before You forever; for what You bless, O Lord, is blessed forever.”


Psalm 132:11-12

11 “The Lord swore to David in truth; He will not turn back from it: One of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.

12 If your children will keep My covenant and My testimony that I shall teach them, their children also shall sit upon your throne forever.”


Isaiah 9:6-8

6 “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”


KEY: God Reigns!


Isaiah 16 is a stiff rebuke against the ancient nation of Moab, who turned to worshipping idols instead of the One True God. God admonishes them to return to Him, in verses 1-5, with the promise of a righteous ruler on David’s Throne. 


And I would like to remind the principalities, and powers over those regions, that the Word of God still applies to you. Because the devil is prince and has power over the air, he has ability, but no authority. 


Satan, you have no jurisdiction to influence kings, sheiks, religious group leaders, civilian people-group leaders, or fighting group leaders, to come against the people God loves, because Jesus has stripped you of your authority. The penalty for coming against the people of God remains the same for all time — complete and utter destruction, and ultimately the lake of fire, as you know already. Stop it! In the name of Jesus Christ the King of kings, and Lord of lords.


It is written:


1 “You [Moabites, now fugitives in Edom, which is ruled by the king of Judah] send lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela or Petra through the desert and wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion [Jerusalem].

2 For like wandering birds, like a brood cast out and a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the [river] Arnon.

3 [Say to the ruler] Give counsel, execute justice [for Moab, O king of Judah]; make your shade [over us] like night in the midst of noonday; hide the outcasts, betray not the fugitive to his pursuer.

4 Let our outcasts of Moab dwell among you; be a sheltered hiding place to them from the destroyer. When the extortion and the extortioner have been brought to nought, and destruction has ceased, and the oppressors and they who trample men are consumed and have vanished out of the land,

5 Then in mercy and loving-kindness shall a throne be established, and One shall sit upon it in truth and faithfulness in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice and being swift to do righteousness.”


Just as promised, God kept David’s throne forever. We see, clearly, that Jesus was born the Son of David.


Matthew 1:1 [AMPC]

“The book of the ancestry (genealogy) of Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the son (descendant) of David, the son (descendant) of Abraham.”


Even those whom Jesus healed, called Him, Son of David. It was known, while He lived on earth, that He was a descendant of David, and therefore the rightful King of Israel.


Isaiah 53:3 reminds us that God [Jesus] was despised and rejected by men. Isaiah goes on to say, 


“…A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”


The Apostle Peter encourages us that we don’t go through unusual things, but that which is common to humans.


And Paul encourages us to help others, because we know what it is like, and have been comforted by God, so that we can comfort others.


Hebrews 10:34-36

34 “For you did sympathize and suffer along with those who were imprisoned, and you bore cheerfully the plundering of your belongings and the confiscation of your property, in the knowledge and consciousness that you yourselves had a better and lasting possession.

35 Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward.

36 For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.”


The Apostle Peter preached the Gospel, with a great promise for the believer.


Acts 2:38-39

38 “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

No matter what our physical circumstances are, the state of our household, or sphere of influence, God promises that we can have confidence in Him to help us through everything we experience in the earth, until in is as we pray according the Lord’s Prayer, “On earth as it is in heaven.”

God promises to provide, protect, guide our steps, and establish our plans that are according to His will.

And one of the greatest promises I have found in the Bible is in the Book of Revelation.

Revelation 21:4

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”