Hello to my weekend readers. I spoke with a couple the other day that had just come in at our campground and honestly, the conversation was exhausting if not defeating. They were happy to be here but…and let me tell you, the “buts” went on and on. “What if we can’t level our trailer?” “Is your water good here-we’re afraid of contamination?” And the big one, “is it going to rain, what if it floods and our trailer slips into the lake?” Yep, you are probably all imaging me biting my tongue and you would be spot-on.

Usually you may encounter one person with some “lack of confidence” but this couple had it in spades. Afraid of everything and all they could think of was “what bad could happen” and totally forgot what “good also happens.” And here is the bumper-sticker they had: “Believe it-Jesus is real!” and then their church name below it. I felt bad for them because if we say we believe in Jesus, in our Almighty God, we don’t need to be fearful, in fact, we have all the confidence we need to live!

I like the way JB Phillips translation of Hebrews 4:16 deals with our faith and the confidence that should go with it: Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.”  That word “fullest” is the focal point to me in this Scripture. The definitions of “fullest” are: complete in every way, of maximum or highest degree, completely filled; containing all that can be held. As the children of God that is what we do have—everything to the full.

The Apostle Paul also understood what it was like to be filled so he even prayed for the new Christians in Rome to be filled as well: “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13 NLT).

We can be like Charlie Brown from the Peanuts cartoons, and worry about everything and live our lives in defeat and without confidence and many do. But that is not what God had in store for us. Below is the Peanuts cartoon about confidence or the lack thereof. It was so popular it ended up with several awards!

Have you ever felt like that—like you can’t even get the day started? Confidence—no way. The truth is—life can be rough, and the struggles we face don’t usually wait their turn. But it’s in those moments when everything seems to be colliding at once that you can walk right up to God and say, “I can’t do this, would please take over?” Actually, have you ever realized that asking for such help is our privilege as the children of God?

Friends, we have the power of the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to give us confidence today and every day…so open up your deck chair, pour yourself a cool glass of water and sit back with confidence knowing that, no matter what comes your way today, God is fully in charge, AMEN!