The Basis of Confidence by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 2, 1908

The Basis of Confidence

By G. B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON

HAVE you sometimes feared that in the trying times just before us, you would cast away your hope, and make shipwreck of your faith? Many in times of special trial have done this, and there is danger that each of us may do likewise. Many a soldier has proved a coward, and in the heat of the battle, when his presence was needed most, has fled from the field of conflict. There are moral cowards as well.

But we need not fear. Perfect love casts fear out of our hearts. The Lord is able to make us stand. He can uphold us with the right hand of his righteousness. Have you placed yourself in his hands? If so, there is no power which is able to pluck you out of your Father's hand.

I used to wonder how I could know that I would stand when confronted with the beast and his image, and forced to struggle amid the trials of the closing conflict. But I have settled it like this: If I stand now, I have the assurance that I will stand then. If I am an overcomer to-day, I can have assurance that I may be an overcomer to-morrow. It is simply a matter of a daily walk with God. “As thy days, so shall thy strength [security, margin] be.” Deut. 33:25, A. R. V. The daily overcomer can look with confidence into the future, and with an abiding trust in God, expect in his name to triumph. But it will be a day-by-day fight for victory.

But what confidence can we have of being an overcomer in harder trials if we are being defeated in the conflicts we are now having? “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” Jer. 12:5. The soldier who is defeated in a skirmish can hardly expect to win in a pitched battle.

But be of good courage, for we have a Captain who has never lost a battle. One “who always leadeth us in triumph.” 2 Cor. 2:14, A. R. V. In him we can triumph each day till the end. And we have assurance for the future. The blessed Lord has provided that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Let us never forget that we are fighting a vanquished foe, and in all these things we are “more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Takoma Park, D. C.