Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
Do not throw away confidence in God and in Christ and in His word, for it has great recompense of reward. To keep that confidence is to hold the profession of faith firm to the end in obedience to His commands, resting on Jesus and His promises rather than on feeling by faithfully doing every known duty. After doing the will of God there must be patient endurance and waiting to receive what is promised, for in yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not delay, and the just shall live by faith while drawing back leads to perdition. After the disappointment over the expected return, this meant not denying God's leading and the Spirit's work in the Advent movement but holding to the light already received, trusting God without understanding the past or the way ahead, and waiting until the disappointment was explained by the heavenly sanctuary. The reward is future glory with Christ at His soon return and an eternity of happiness in the earth made new, and trials borne with patience are His training to prepare believers for it, while Satan works to lead discouraged souls to cast confidence away by urging their unworthiness and that God has forsaken them.
Holding Fast Confidence
The verse is a command not to throw away confidence in God, in Christ, and in His word, because that confidence has great recompense of reward. For those facing disappointment after expecting Christ's return, keeping confidence meant holding to the light and promises already received, trusting God even without understanding past events or seeing the way ahead, and refusing to deny His leading and the Spirit's work in the Advent movement. It meant persevering, continuing to search Scripture, and waiting and watching for further light rather than renouncing faith. The encouragement belongs especially to the last days, when His coming may seem delayed and believers are tempted to give up faith, yet He will surely come.
Holding confidence requires patience, so that after doing the will of God the promise may be received. In yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not delay. The just shall live by faith, but drawing back brings God's displeasure and leads toward perdition, while continuing in belief leads to the saving of the soul. Those in danger of losing confidence must therefore hold fast to what they rightly did in faith in doing God's will, showing patience rather than doubt, since drawing back from that work goes toward perdition.
Holding confidence means holding the profession of faith firm and steadfast to the end without throwing it away, for through Christ the end of the journey will be reached. It means obeying God's holy, just, and perfect commands diligently and in faith, and this steadfast obedience makes believers partakers of Christ. By partaking of the divine nature they are enabled to show the world an illustration of perfect obedience that magnifies God. Their steadfastness converts the soul, enrolls their names in the Lamb's book of life, and brings great reward as they press toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The confidence not to be cast away includes confidence in God and in His servants who bear the message of mercy, whom the Lord respects and honors. Confidence rests on Jesus and God's promises rather than on feeling, and is not to be given up when darkness or discouragement threatens to overwhelm. It is kept by continuing to look to Jesus whether or not one feels assured, by faithfully doing every known duty and what one knows is right, and by resting calmly in the promises.
Disappointment After 1844
After the disappointment over the expected return of Christ, believers were tested and told not to abandon confidence in God and His word because steadfast faith has great reward. Holding to confidence meant holding to the light and promises already received, trusting God despite not understanding past events or seeing the way ahead, and refusing to deny His leading and the Spirit's work in the Advent movement. They were to persevere, patiently continue to study Scripture, and wait and watch for further light rather than renounce faith when disappointed hopes, delay, and public ridicule tested whether they would keep truths supported by Scripture. Those who kept confidence had done the will of God in proclaiming the coming and would receive the promise, with hearts established because the coming of the Lord draws nigh, for in yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not tarry.
Keeping confidence meant refusing to confess to opposers and scoffers that the tenth-day seventh-month movement was a mistake and refusing to call its powerful work of the Holy Spirit human or satanic. After walking as if by sight in the blazing light of unsealed prophecy and rapidly fulfilling signs that Christ's coming was at the doors, they stood with disappointed hopes and stricken hearts and now had to live by faith in the sure word. They were to wait, watch and pray with patience until the disappointment was explained by the light of the heavenly sanctuary and the three messages of Revelation 14. Those who obey and hold fast please God, believe to the saving of the soul, and by faith see the open door of the heavenly sanctuary and Jesus there pleading His precious blood before the ark in the most holy place, while those who throw away confidence by declaring the movement was not of God show rash unbelief and impatience, get out of the shut-door disappointment on the side of perdition, and draw back to perdition in which God has no pleasure.
Believers in danger of losing confidence were to hold fast to what they had rightly done in faith in doing God's will in proclaiming the coming, showing patience rather than doubt about whether they had done God's will. Drawing back from that work would lead toward perdition. The encouragement is especially applicable to the last days, when the Lord's coming may seem delayed and believers are tempted to give up faith, yet He will come, the just shall live by faith, and drawing back leads toward perdition. The faith of those awaiting their Redeemer looked to the hoped-for reward connected with confidence in God. As they expected soon to meet Christ, they prayed earnestly, sought assurance of God's acceptance, and felt joy, the Holy Spirit's blessing, and answers to prayer.
Before 1844 Advent believers were united in brotherly love, and if they had held firm to the light they had received instead of dividing, their steadfast confidence would have advanced the work powerfully. By not giving up confidence in God and the truth or drawing back from their position, they would have helped proclaim the third angel's message, carry the Sabbath reform to the nations, and hasten the gathering of the faithful. Their division hindered that work.
Patience and Promised Coming
Confidence is joined to patience, for after doing the will of God believers must patiently endure and wait in order to receive what is promised. Holding that confidence means working together with God in Christ's lines, submitting to His training to be complete in Christ, resisting temptation by divine strength, escaping the corruption of the world through lust, partaking of the divine nature as lights in the world, and enduring by faith as Moses endured seeing Him who is invisible on the path that leads to Paradise and the highest Christian character. In peril this patience keeps believers doing God's will until the promised reward comes.
In yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not tarry or delay. His coming brings deliverance and rest, when the battle is fought and the victory won. Standing on the very verge of fulfillment amid earthly shadows and turmoil, believers wait patiently after doing God's will until that promised reward comes.
The just shall live by faith, but if any draw back God has no pleasure in him. Drawing back is unto perdition, while believing continues to the saving of the soul. Those who keep faith rather than retreat to destruction are those whose faith leads to the saving of the soul, continuing to live by faith rather than drawing back to displease God.
These words are given to encourage those facing temptation and doubt, so that confidence endures even when an answer is delayed. Applied to depression of soul and shaken trust, they call believers to be not faithless but believing, to put trust wholly in God. That same trust forbids being suspicious and mistrustful of brethren on suspicions often without true foundation.
Nature of Future Reward
The great recompense is future glory with Christ at His soon return, the sight of Him in whom hopes of eternal life are centered, bringing deliverance and rest when the battle is fought and the victory won. Confidence must therefore endure through present trials and earthly shadows and turmoil while standing on the very verge of fulfillment, sustained by patience in doing God's will in order to receive what is promised, for in a little while He who is to come will come and will not delay. Then the trials and sufferings of this life will seem as nothing and former things will not be remembered, making present self-denial and suffering worthwhile, and this faith guides along the narrow path into the wide future of glory and the inheritance promised to the overcomer. Faith in Jesus as Redeemer sustains that patience and hope through trials, with earnest waiting for the promised future with Him.
That reward is an eternity of happiness for His children in the earth made new, where God dwells with His people and wipes away all tears and there is no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. It is the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, being made rich in glory and receiving the rich inheritance Christ purchased by becoming poor that believers might be made rich, to be shared with Jesus and with the martyrs who laid down their lives for truth. Keeping confidence means walking without complaining, murmuring, or turning back on the straight and narrow cross-bearing way to heaven, following Jesus who trod that way first as a man of sorrows, rejoicing in tribulation, craving the suffering part and seeking perfection through sufferings as a partaker of Christ's sufferings. This promise is an inducement to live holy lives and earnestly comply with God's requirements by understanding relation to God and being in harmony with His divine will, while those who refuse after such inducements are foolish and bewitched away from obeying the truth, and many youth will suffer terrible disappointment when they find they have lost heaven.
Holding such confidence means working together with God in Christ's lines, submitting to His training to be complete in Christ, resisting temptation by drawing strength from God, escaping the corruption of the world through lust, and partaking of the divine nature so as to become lights in the world. It means holding the profession of faith firm and steadfast to the end in obedience to God's holy, just, and perfect commands, which makes people partakers of Christ, converts the soul, enrolls names in the Lamb's book of life, and enables them to show the world an illustration of perfect obedience that magnifies God. It requires patience and diligent faithful doing of the will of God so that after obedience the promise is received, enduring by faith as Moses endured seeing Him who is invisible, pressing toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus on the path that leads to Paradise and the highest standard of Christian character. For the just live by faith, and drawing back brings God's displeasure and leads to perdition, while those who believe continue to the saving of the soul.
Trials borne with patience are God's workmen preparing the recompense of reward. They are therefore to be met with courage, trust, hope, cheerfulness, freedom, happiness, and good courage rather than doubt, distrust, dwelling on self and grievances, or expressing doubts. This means resisting Satan when he magnifies trials and suggests pain means speedy death, refusing to look at self, talking faith, hope, and courage, looking to Jesus for strength to be conquerors, husbanding strength, working in harmony, and being patient in a hard field of labor.
Confidence kept under proving in a responsible position of trust has great recompense and brings a rich reward. Those so placed by God, not because they are faultless but notwithstanding imperfections, are on test and trial and must hold confidence by making the Word of God their guide and the Holy Spirit their teacher. If they bear the proving of God they will receive that rich reward, but if they fail to bear the test the Lord cannot use them to His name's honor and glory, for they will mar His work.
Endurance Through Trials
In perplexity, affliction, persecution, and loss of earthly comforts confidence in God and in Christ must not be surrendered, for it carries great reward. Such trials are part of Christ's training and discipline to purge away dross and refine believers from earthliness, enabling His servants to endure Satan's attacks and overcome obstacles and opposition. Persecution and loss do not require renouncing faith, for they do not outweigh the reward, and trials can bring believers nearer to rest. Even when the outcome of events cannot be seen and God's purpose cannot be understood, affliction is met by remembering His tender mercies, entrusting cares to Him, and patiently waiting for His salvation.
Endurance comes by looking to Jesus rather than dwelling on difficulties, which keeps from fainting and leads to receiving His help in simple trust. With great eternal things just before and temporal things fading, now is not the time to cast away confidence but to hold it with firm assurance, firmer than ever before, in getting ready for that day. The monumental pillars of what the Lord has done are to be kept fresh in memory — every tear wiped away, pain soothed, anxiety removed, fear dispelled, want supplied, and mercy bestowed — giving comfort and strength for what lies ahead. The Lord who has helped hitherto will help to the end, giving strength proportionate to each trial so that the trial will not exceed the strength given to bear it, even though new perplexities and conflict are coming.
When darkness or discouragement threatens to overwhelm, confidence is still not to be given up. Believers are to keep looking to Jesus whether or not they feel assured. Confidence rests on Jesus and God's promises rather than on feeling, and is kept by faithfully doing what is known to be right and every known duty, and by resting calmly in God's promises and calmly trusting Him.
Satan works powerfully to lead trembling, feeble, desponding, diseased, and discouraged souls to cast away confidence, especially those who think God has left them when they are precious in His sight. He does this by holding up unworthiness before the mind and whispering torment to convince the person that they are lost, that it is no use to hope, that they must perish, until it seems that God's wrath is written upon everything around and that they are forsaken. Casting away confidence in this way is Satan's leading and gratifies the enemy, not proof that God has forsaken. God has not left His people even if they err and does not turn from them in wrath for any light thing; His love is still toward the erring, His loving-kindness changes not, He pities and wishes to save, and coming to Him believing to be received in His loving, sheltering arms, resting in His promises, trusting Him, and hoping in Him breaks the enemy's hold, weakens his discouraging suggestions, and gives reason to expect renewed praise.
Trials borne with patience are God's workmen preparing a recompense of reward, so confidence must not be cast away. Under trials believers are to be cheerful, free, happy, trustful, and of good courage, and to be patient in a hard field of labor, husbanding strength and working in harmony. When Satan tempts to magnify trials, to suggest that pain means speedy death, and to fear death, he must be resisted; believers must refuse to look at self, to dwell on self and grievances, and to express doubts, and must instead talk faith, hope, and courage while looking to Jesus for strength to be conquerors.
Spiritual confidence and enjoyment are thrown away when remorse, self-reproach, and regret follow loss of means in uncertain speculative enterprises such as patent rights. Such ventures waste money that should support the family and advance the cause of present truth, and losing confidence in this way also injures health. Keeping confidence therefore requires leaving uncertain enterprises alone and seeking steady employment even if the income is small.
Holding fast confidence in God brings the rich reward of glory. Holding it requires pressing together in unity, even to laying down life for one another, sparing neither money nor anything else to live wholly for God. It requires guarding the mouth from light, trifling, and wicked conversation, obtaining much grace to stand when Satan tempts, overcoming lack of faith and too-ready, hasty speech, and taking the promises as personal counsel belonging to oneself and not only to others.
Confidence in God's Work
Those who work for God in the cities are to take this charge personally and read it carefully for themselves. They are to go forward in faith doing their very best, watching and working and praying with confidence that God hears and answers their petitions. By so holding confidence they obtain an experience that will be invaluable for their after work.
Ministers and workers must not give up their confidence when labor brings trials, perplexities, and temptations, or when they do not see the results they hoped for and desired. Christ endured severe conflict and temptation, and His earnest labor for His own people was rejected, even unto death at the hands of those He came to save. Hardship and apparent failure are therefore no reason to lose confidence in the work God has given or to despond under arduous labor. Shrinking from hardship and complaining under tribulation only make God's servants weak and ineffective.
In building work this confidence means trusting God enough to work and pray and move forward before every needed resource is in hand. It calls for steady, earnest effort with obedience and refusal to give in to doubt or discouragement, since lack of faith can keep people from receiving the fulfillment of God's promises. Those who are afflicted or unjustly used must likewise keep confidence in God and not cast it away, for great reward belongs to it. This means crying to God, turning away from hard-hearted men, making requests known to the Maker, and continuing in united, persevering prayer without looking at discouraging outward appearances, in faith that God hears the prayer of faith. After doing the will of God patience is required in order to receive the promise, for in a little while He that shall come will come and will not tarry, and church difficulties are not to be taken to unbelieving lawyers and courts for decision but God's people are to agree together and unite in prayer to God for deliverance.
Discouraged and timid believers are not to give up their confidence, because it brings a great reward, but are to draw from it strength and courage to hold to the truth and to speak of their faith.
Do not throw away confidence in God and in Christ and in His word, for it has great recompense of reward. To keep that confidence is to hold the profession of faith firm to the end in obedience to His commands, resting on Jesus and His promises rather than on feeling by faithfully doing every known duty. After doing the will of God there must be patient endurance and waiting to receive what is promised, for in yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not delay, and the just shall live by faith while drawing back leads to perdition. After the disappointment over the expected return, this meant not denying God's leading and the Spirit's work in the Advent movement but holding to the light already received, trusting God without understanding the past or the way ahead, and waiting until the disappointment was explained by the heavenly sanctuary. The reward is future glory with Christ at His soon return and an eternity of happiness in the earth made new, and trials borne with patience are His training to prepare believers for it, while Satan works to lead discouraged souls to cast confidence away by urging their unworthiness and that God has forsaken them.
Holding Fast Confidence
The verse is a command not to throw away confidence in God, in Christ, and in His word, because that confidence has great recompense of reward. For those facing disappointment after expecting Christ's return, keeping confidence meant holding to the light and promises already received, trusting God even without understanding past events or seeing the way ahead, and refusing to deny His leading and the Spirit's work in the Advent movement. It meant persevering, continuing to search Scripture, and waiting and watching for further light rather than renouncing faith. The encouragement belongs especially to the last days, when His coming may seem delayed and believers are tempted to give up faith, yet He will surely come.
Holding confidence requires patience, so that after doing the will of God the promise may be received. In yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not delay. The just shall live by faith, but drawing back brings God's displeasure and leads toward perdition, while continuing in belief leads to the saving of the soul. Those in danger of losing confidence must therefore hold fast to what they rightly did in faith in doing God's will, showing patience rather than doubt, since drawing back from that work goes toward perdition.
Holding confidence means holding the profession of faith firm and steadfast to the end without throwing it away, for through Christ the end of the journey will be reached. It means obeying God's holy, just, and perfect commands diligently and in faith, and this steadfast obedience makes believers partakers of Christ. By partaking of the divine nature they are enabled to show the world an illustration of perfect obedience that magnifies God. Their steadfastness converts the soul, enrolls their names in the Lamb's book of life, and brings great reward as they press toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The confidence not to be cast away includes confidence in God and in His servants who bear the message of mercy, whom the Lord respects and honors. Confidence rests on Jesus and God's promises rather than on feeling, and is not to be given up when darkness or discouragement threatens to overwhelm. It is kept by continuing to look to Jesus whether or not one feels assured, by faithfully doing every known duty and what one knows is right, and by resting calmly in the promises.
Disappointment After 1844
After the disappointment over the expected return of Christ, believers were tested and told not to abandon confidence in God and His word because steadfast faith has great reward. Holding to confidence meant holding to the light and promises already received, trusting God despite not understanding past events or seeing the way ahead, and refusing to deny His leading and the Spirit's work in the Advent movement. They were to persevere, patiently continue to study Scripture, and wait and watch for further light rather than renounce faith when disappointed hopes, delay, and public ridicule tested whether they would keep truths supported by Scripture. Those who kept confidence had done the will of God in proclaiming the coming and would receive the promise, with hearts established because the coming of the Lord draws nigh, for in yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not tarry.
Keeping confidence meant refusing to confess to opposers and scoffers that the tenth-day seventh-month movement was a mistake and refusing to call its powerful work of the Holy Spirit human or satanic. After walking as if by sight in the blazing light of unsealed prophecy and rapidly fulfilling signs that Christ's coming was at the doors, they stood with disappointed hopes and stricken hearts and now had to live by faith in the sure word. They were to wait, watch and pray with patience until the disappointment was explained by the light of the heavenly sanctuary and the three messages of Revelation 14. Those who obey and hold fast please God, believe to the saving of the soul, and by faith see the open door of the heavenly sanctuary and Jesus there pleading His precious blood before the ark in the most holy place, while those who throw away confidence by declaring the movement was not of God show rash unbelief and impatience, get out of the shut-door disappointment on the side of perdition, and draw back to perdition in which God has no pleasure.
Believers in danger of losing confidence were to hold fast to what they had rightly done in faith in doing God's will in proclaiming the coming, showing patience rather than doubt about whether they had done God's will. Drawing back from that work would lead toward perdition. The encouragement is especially applicable to the last days, when the Lord's coming may seem delayed and believers are tempted to give up faith, yet He will come, the just shall live by faith, and drawing back leads toward perdition. The faith of those awaiting their Redeemer looked to the hoped-for reward connected with confidence in God. As they expected soon to meet Christ, they prayed earnestly, sought assurance of God's acceptance, and felt joy, the Holy Spirit's blessing, and answers to prayer.
Before 1844 Advent believers were united in brotherly love, and if they had held firm to the light they had received instead of dividing, their steadfast confidence would have advanced the work powerfully. By not giving up confidence in God and the truth or drawing back from their position, they would have helped proclaim the third angel's message, carry the Sabbath reform to the nations, and hasten the gathering of the faithful. Their division hindered that work.
Patience and Promised Coming
Confidence is joined to patience, for after doing the will of God believers must patiently endure and wait in order to receive what is promised. Holding that confidence means working together with God in Christ's lines, submitting to His training to be complete in Christ, resisting temptation by divine strength, escaping the corruption of the world through lust, partaking of the divine nature as lights in the world, and enduring by faith as Moses endured seeing Him who is invisible on the path that leads to Paradise and the highest Christian character. In peril this patience keeps believers doing God's will until the promised reward comes.
In yet a little while He that shall come will come and will not tarry or delay. His coming brings deliverance and rest, when the battle is fought and the victory won. Standing on the very verge of fulfillment amid earthly shadows and turmoil, believers wait patiently after doing God's will until that promised reward comes.
The just shall live by faith, but if any draw back God has no pleasure in him. Drawing back is unto perdition, while believing continues to the saving of the soul. Those who keep faith rather than retreat to destruction are those whose faith leads to the saving of the soul, continuing to live by faith rather than drawing back to displease God.
These words are given to encourage those facing temptation and doubt, so that confidence endures even when an answer is delayed. Applied to depression of soul and shaken trust, they call believers to be not faithless but believing, to put trust wholly in God. That same trust forbids being suspicious and mistrustful of brethren on suspicions often without true foundation.
Nature of Future Reward
The great recompense is future glory with Christ at His soon return, the sight of Him in whom hopes of eternal life are centered, bringing deliverance and rest when the battle is fought and the victory won. Confidence must therefore endure through present trials and earthly shadows and turmoil while standing on the very verge of fulfillment, sustained by patience in doing God's will in order to receive what is promised, for in a little while He who is to come will come and will not delay. Then the trials and sufferings of this life will seem as nothing and former things will not be remembered, making present self-denial and suffering worthwhile, and this faith guides along the narrow path into the wide future of glory and the inheritance promised to the overcomer. Faith in Jesus as Redeemer sustains that patience and hope through trials, with earnest waiting for the promised future with Him.
That reward is an eternity of happiness for His children in the earth made new, where God dwells with His people and wipes away all tears and there is no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. It is the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, being made rich in glory and receiving the rich inheritance Christ purchased by becoming poor that believers might be made rich, to be shared with Jesus and with the martyrs who laid down their lives for truth. Keeping confidence means walking without complaining, murmuring, or turning back on the straight and narrow cross-bearing way to heaven, following Jesus who trod that way first as a man of sorrows, rejoicing in tribulation, craving the suffering part and seeking perfection through sufferings as a partaker of Christ's sufferings. This promise is an inducement to live holy lives and earnestly comply with God's requirements by understanding relation to God and being in harmony with His divine will, while those who refuse after such inducements are foolish and bewitched away from obeying the truth, and many youth will suffer terrible disappointment when they find they have lost heaven.
Holding such confidence means working together with God in Christ's lines, submitting to His training to be complete in Christ, resisting temptation by drawing strength from God, escaping the corruption of the world through lust, and partaking of the divine nature so as to become lights in the world. It means holding the profession of faith firm and steadfast to the end in obedience to God's holy, just, and perfect commands, which makes people partakers of Christ, converts the soul, enrolls names in the Lamb's book of life, and enables them to show the world an illustration of perfect obedience that magnifies God. It requires patience and diligent faithful doing of the will of God so that after obedience the promise is received, enduring by faith as Moses endured seeing Him who is invisible, pressing toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus on the path that leads to Paradise and the highest standard of Christian character. For the just live by faith, and drawing back brings God's displeasure and leads to perdition, while those who believe continue to the saving of the soul.
Trials borne with patience are God's workmen preparing the recompense of reward. They are therefore to be met with courage, trust, hope, cheerfulness, freedom, happiness, and good courage rather than doubt, distrust, dwelling on self and grievances, or expressing doubts. This means resisting Satan when he magnifies trials and suggests pain means speedy death, refusing to look at self, talking faith, hope, and courage, looking to Jesus for strength to be conquerors, husbanding strength, working in harmony, and being patient in a hard field of labor.
Confidence kept under proving in a responsible position of trust has great recompense and brings a rich reward. Those so placed by God, not because they are faultless but notwithstanding imperfections, are on test and trial and must hold confidence by making the Word of God their guide and the Holy Spirit their teacher. If they bear the proving of God they will receive that rich reward, but if they fail to bear the test the Lord cannot use them to His name's honor and glory, for they will mar His work.
Endurance Through Trials
In perplexity, affliction, persecution, and loss of earthly comforts confidence in God and in Christ must not be surrendered, for it carries great reward. Such trials are part of Christ's training and discipline to purge away dross and refine believers from earthliness, enabling His servants to endure Satan's attacks and overcome obstacles and opposition. Persecution and loss do not require renouncing faith, for they do not outweigh the reward, and trials can bring believers nearer to rest. Even when the outcome of events cannot be seen and God's purpose cannot be understood, affliction is met by remembering His tender mercies, entrusting cares to Him, and patiently waiting for His salvation.
Endurance comes by looking to Jesus rather than dwelling on difficulties, which keeps from fainting and leads to receiving His help in simple trust. With great eternal things just before and temporal things fading, now is not the time to cast away confidence but to hold it with firm assurance, firmer than ever before, in getting ready for that day. The monumental pillars of what the Lord has done are to be kept fresh in memory — every tear wiped away, pain soothed, anxiety removed, fear dispelled, want supplied, and mercy bestowed — giving comfort and strength for what lies ahead. The Lord who has helped hitherto will help to the end, giving strength proportionate to each trial so that the trial will not exceed the strength given to bear it, even though new perplexities and conflict are coming.
When darkness or discouragement threatens to overwhelm, confidence is still not to be given up. Believers are to keep looking to Jesus whether or not they feel assured. Confidence rests on Jesus and God's promises rather than on feeling, and is kept by faithfully doing what is known to be right and every known duty, and by resting calmly in God's promises and calmly trusting Him.
Satan works powerfully to lead trembling, feeble, desponding, diseased, and discouraged souls to cast away confidence, especially those who think God has left them when they are precious in His sight. He does this by holding up unworthiness before the mind and whispering torment to convince the person that they are lost, that it is no use to hope, that they must perish, until it seems that God's wrath is written upon everything around and that they are forsaken. Casting away confidence in this way is Satan's leading and gratifies the enemy, not proof that God has forsaken. God has not left His people even if they err and does not turn from them in wrath for any light thing; His love is still toward the erring, His loving-kindness changes not, He pities and wishes to save, and coming to Him believing to be received in His loving, sheltering arms, resting in His promises, trusting Him, and hoping in Him breaks the enemy's hold, weakens his discouraging suggestions, and gives reason to expect renewed praise.
Trials borne with patience are God's workmen preparing a recompense of reward, so confidence must not be cast away. Under trials believers are to be cheerful, free, happy, trustful, and of good courage, and to be patient in a hard field of labor, husbanding strength and working in harmony. When Satan tempts to magnify trials, to suggest that pain means speedy death, and to fear death, he must be resisted; believers must refuse to look at self, to dwell on self and grievances, and to express doubts, and must instead talk faith, hope, and courage while looking to Jesus for strength to be conquerors.
Spiritual confidence and enjoyment are thrown away when remorse, self-reproach, and regret follow loss of means in uncertain speculative enterprises such as patent rights. Such ventures waste money that should support the family and advance the cause of present truth, and losing confidence in this way also injures health. Keeping confidence therefore requires leaving uncertain enterprises alone and seeking steady employment even if the income is small.
Holding fast confidence in God brings the rich reward of glory. Holding it requires pressing together in unity, even to laying down life for one another, sparing neither money nor anything else to live wholly for God. It requires guarding the mouth from light, trifling, and wicked conversation, obtaining much grace to stand when Satan tempts, overcoming lack of faith and too-ready, hasty speech, and taking the promises as personal counsel belonging to oneself and not only to others.
Confidence in God's Work
Those who work for God in the cities are to take this charge personally and read it carefully for themselves. They are to go forward in faith doing their very best, watching and working and praying with confidence that God hears and answers their petitions. By so holding confidence they obtain an experience that will be invaluable for their after work.
Ministers and workers must not give up their confidence when labor brings trials, perplexities, and temptations, or when they do not see the results they hoped for and desired. Christ endured severe conflict and temptation, and His earnest labor for His own people was rejected, even unto death at the hands of those He came to save. Hardship and apparent failure are therefore no reason to lose confidence in the work God has given or to despond under arduous labor. Shrinking from hardship and complaining under tribulation only make God's servants weak and ineffective.
In building work this confidence means trusting God enough to work and pray and move forward before every needed resource is in hand. It calls for steady, earnest effort with obedience and refusal to give in to doubt or discouragement, since lack of faith can keep people from receiving the fulfillment of God's promises. Those who are afflicted or unjustly used must likewise keep confidence in God and not cast it away, for great reward belongs to it. This means crying to God, turning away from hard-hearted men, making requests known to the Maker, and continuing in united, persevering prayer without looking at discouraging outward appearances, in faith that God hears the prayer of faith. After doing the will of God patience is required in order to receive the promise, for in a little while He that shall come will come and will not tarry, and church difficulties are not to be taken to unbelieving lawyers and courts for decision but God's people are to agree together and unite in prayer to God for deliverance.
Discouraged and timid believers are not to give up their confidence, because it brings a great reward, but are to draw from it strength and courage to hold to the truth and to speak of their faith.