“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
1 John 5:14-15 NIV
Confidence is a thing that is missing from the lives of many Christians. The term itself can be interchangeable with ideas of boldness and authority. In Jesus’ day, there was no shortage of religious power, but one of the things that set Jesus and eventually his followers apart was they spoke with this boldness and authority. The word “confidence,” is a hybridized Latin term. It is the blending of two words: con and fide. These terms mean: with and faith. Having boldness in our relationship with God is to live “with faith.” It is to be with faith in the nature, character, and work of The Son and his Father. It is to submit with faith to the activity of the Spirit. Many Christians wonder why their belief doesn’t yield a harvest of love or boldness but John makes it clear. To have a relationship with God that has no faith in him is to have a relationship that is a lie. If we expect to be transformed and transformative, we must open ourselves to the first step of faith in God. It is only in his context that a Christian can be free to love. It is only in this context that a Christian can be free of worry. It is in this framework that a Christian can come before his God and seek to participate in his will. We must love “with faith” to live in The Faith.
This post first appeared at JoshMcGary.com
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