Confidence in Christ, Hebrews 10:35-36

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."

     In and of ourselves we have little reason to be confident. There is nothing we have of ourselves, but everything we have we have received from God, who is the giver of all good things. If then we have nothing of ourselves but received all from Christ, we should not have confidence in ourselves but rather in Christ.

     In our daily walks with the Lord, He will at times put things upon our hearts that we ought to do. He may give us directions for the next step in His plan for our lives, and with that instruction He will give us His peace, which surpasses all human understanding, to assure us that what is being told to you is of Him. In such case, we have the confidence to move on in faith toward that thing which God has set before us.
     However, as time passes we may start to wonder and question whether or not it was truly the Lord speaking to us, or if somehow we were mistaken and it was really our own idea or thought. It has been said, "don't doubt in darkness what God has told you in the light". If God revealed something to you in a time of prayer and meditation on His word, a time when you are "in the light", and now you are going through a dry time, a time where you are spiritually dry or are doubting ("the dark"), this doesn't nullify the word God gave to you when you were "in the light". Though we may not feel like the Lord is with us in a given circumstance, whatever He spoke to you before this circumstance does not become invalid or inconsequential; it is still God's word for you.

     This is where Hebrews 10:35-36 comes in: Do not throw away that confidence to walk in faith toward what the Lord had shown you! Keep on going. That is why it is called walking by faith. God showed you something on a mountaintop, and then He sent you down into the valley for you to apply it to you life and be tested.
     Perhaps God spoke to your heart and told you that soon you would meet the person He'd picked out for you to be married to. But He said to wait for His timing, that just because He showed you that they were the right one that didn't give you the go-ahead to do things in your own efforts. You need to wait for His perfect timing. Then you meet someone, and you start to like them and become interested in them. You remember what God spoke to your heart before you met them, but you can't help but doubt that this is the right person, and you can't help but dwell on your own imperfections and insecurities. The Lord showed you that you were going to meet someone, and you believed Him in that time of prayer, but now you can only doubt that this person you've met is the one God talked about.

     Now of course people can make errors and we should always take every step in prayer and in faith. But as for the example, they cannot just disregard what God told them! They believed Him then, He told them what they were going to be getting into, and instead of praying over each step they take and walking in faith toward the will of God, they are cowering in a corner trying to convince themselves that it really isn't God's will but that they have somehow deceived themselves into thinking that God spoke to them. They are caught up in foolish self-pity and pride thinking that they aren't good enough yet for God to bring someone into their life, and that they should simply disregard the feelings they have for that person. But they should not do so, but hold onto what confidence God gave them and persevere in faith so that they can walk in the will of God, and so attain what God has promised them.

     Perhaps all of your friends were going to get involved in a ministry at church, but you didn't feel God leading you to do so. There was no question in your mind at all that God was not calling you to get involved in such and such ministry. But then one morning God lays it upon your heart to get involved in that very ministry! It would be so easy to later doubt that God had done so and think that you merely conjoured up the idea because you wanted to be with all your friends. You remember that no such thought had entered your mind, and that you'd even told your friends you wouldn't even consider joining that ministry because God had not put it upon your heart and you didn't want to join with impure motives. But somehow you doubt what God told you before. Don't do that! You need to step out in faith; you need to take that step of faith and get involved in that ministry. Don't doubt what God reveals to you, but walk in faith. If it was not God's will for you, don't worry, He won't punish you for taking a step of faith, but He will bless you and provide for you as He knows your motive was right: that you believed that He called you to do it, and you believed you were being obedient to the will of God.