“That’s it – I’m done! I can’t take this anymore! This is way too much for me to handle. I don’t have what it takes to do this. I am through.”
Have you ever had those thoughts? Have you ever spoken those words?
I wouldn’t be surprised if every man at some point in time has come to that point of resignation. Perhaps it was a work issue. Perhaps it was a relational issue. Perhaps it was the Lord leading you into or through something that was overwhelming. Or perhaps it was an accumulation of these things all at one time. Whatever the circumstances that were the precursors to your scenario, the result is the same – feeling completely overwhelmed and unable to meet the challenge presented.
Have you ever taken a good long look at who you are, or more accurately who you aren’t, and been profoundly discouraged?
Again, I have no doubt that every man has taken a prolonged look into the virtual mirror and deemed our self to be unworthy, unfit, unable, incapable, and been basically supremely bummed out about who we are.
If you have, join the club. Sometimes I feel like I am the captain of that club. Dang, I wish it wasn’t like that…
This last week was one of those times of massive self-doubt for me. “I can’t do this anymore…this is too hard…I don’t have what it takes to do this…pick someone else Lord, a better man than me.”
So where do we go in those times when we despise ourselves for who we have not become? Where do we go when we are in the midst of the ‘now’ and ‘not yet’? – which is everything this side of heaven. How do we live with hope in the midst of the brokenness?
I was walking through a bird sanctuary wrestling with these issues – no, ‘agonizing’ with these issues – when I stopped and looked at a family of ducks. There were 3 little ducklings and an adult female sunning themselves on a log in the pond. The ducklings could not fly – their wings were tiny little stubs that had not grown into wings capable of sustaining them. They were awkwardly stumbling over each other and falling into the water, all the while their mother stood strong and true beside them.
I thought that this was a good picture of ‘now’ and ‘not yet’. The adult duck represented the not yet for the ducklings, their immaturity represented their now. It would be silly for the ducklings to despise themselves because they weren’t like their mother. They will be like her one day, but not today. There is an appropriateness to who they are now, and an appropriateness to who they will be ‘then’.
Be content in the ‘now’, and live in hopeful expectation of the ‘not yet’.
We can often condemn ourselves for who we are (the now), and lose faith for who we are becoming (the not yet). We can lose heart and give up because of the difficulties we are facing, and lose confidence in who we are becoming.
Losing heart is throwing away your confidence. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to not throw away our confidence. However, that begs the question, “What do you put your confidence in?”, or better still, “In whom do you put your confidence?”
Self-confidence can only take you so far. God confidence will take you much, much further. Sometimes the whole reason we come to those points of crisis when we want to throw it all away; when we feel overwhelmed by life and become profoundly discouraged with who we are; is because God is offering us the opportunity to shift from self-confidence to God confidence. To trust in Him, and in doing so discover a whole new strength and perspective on life.
Apart from Christ we can do nothing, but we can do all things through Him who strengthens us.
So what is our confidence? I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
Yes, Jesus is our confidence. He will complete His good work in you. The crisis or the difficulties you are facing are providing you with an opportunity to shift from self-confidence to God-confidence. Surrender to Jesus anew and ask Him to lead you and guide you, counsel and watch over you.
Don’t throw away your ‘God’ confidence – it’s in Him that we really learn to fly.
Hebrews 10:35
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”
Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Psalm 32:8
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”