Last week our friend was sorting through an issue that affects all of us at one time or another. They had a fine career and were suddenly sideswiped by a loss of confidence. It was not depression as much as a deflation. He had lost his sense of hope and belief in his own skills. All he could see was his being stuck and immobilized.
I didn’t say anything in the group – that’s against the rules – but I later sent him this book mark I picked up years ago that is a poem by James Seward:
It is His will that I should cast
My care on Him each day;
He also bids me not to cast
My confidence away.
But oh! how foolishly I act
When taken unaware,
I cast away my confidence
And carry all my care!
I don’t think my friend is the only one who finds themselves now and then in a similar situation. We lose our confidence and carry all our cares. I know it happens to me.
2. It must be a general condition because it is addressed so much in Scripture. So many of the men and women we consider spiritual giants have suffered from it. Abraham loses confidence in God’s promise of a son. Moses loses confidence and tries to get out of what God has called him to do. Gideon doubts his abilities to fight the Midianites. Elijah hides in a cave. Elisha runs. Peter denies Christ. David is discouraged. Solomon despairs of everything and Job is a whole book about dealing with confidence in God. How many times does God say “fear not” or “trust in my everlasting love” or “I will never leave or forsake you”? But, it’s not enough to hear it one time, is it? The author Frederick Buechner wrote, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” He’s right. The world is broken and we are subject to fear, discouragement and loss of confidence.
For me, one of the most helpful writers is Oswald Chambers. He is English so there is a large strain of duty, determination, and sheer will in much of what he writes. He’s not easy to read some mornings when I want an excuse for the way I am feeling or when I want just to coast. But a person like me needs a healthy does of duty and rigor! At any rate, I come back to this time and again.
“In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples went to sleep when they should have stayed awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, “Well, it’s all over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.” If we think this kind of despair is an exception, we are mistaken. It is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair. But Jesus comes and lovingly says to us, in essence, “Sleep on now. That opportunity is lost forever and you can’t change that. But get up, and let’s go on to the next thing.” In other words, let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ, and let us go on into the invincible future with Him. There will be experiences like this in each of our lives. We will have times of despair caused by real events in our lives, and we will be unable to lift ourselves out of them. The disciples, in this instance, had done a downright unthinkable thing— they had gone to sleep instead of watching with Jesus. But our Lord came to them taking the spiritual initiative against their despair and said, in effect, “Get up, and do the next thing.” If we are inspired by God, what is the next thing? It is to trust Him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption. Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.”
3. Just do the next thing. But there is something else for those times when you have lost confidence. Go back to the basics. We can read of great musicians or athletes who go into slumps and they go back to the basics. They practice the fundamentals again. They play their scales. They clear the ground. They remember.
Remembering is different from reminiscing. Reminiscing is romanticizing the past. Remembering is making the past a part of the present. It is recalling. It is like the difference between old age and wisdom. Old age is living in the past. Wisdom is living today out of the distilled experiences of the past.
Yes, there is great wisdom in “do the next thing” but there is also a time to consider the past – and to remember. In fact, there are numerous times in Scripture when God says simply that. “Remember”.
Sometimes we need what Israel had after they had crossed the Jordan. A literal pile of twelve stones on the other side that were taken from the middle of the river when God made a way for them. Sometimes our confidence needs to be rooted in the past and we return to a time or a place and recall some things about God. That is exactly what he told them to do. They needed a permanent pile of stones as reminders. Do you have anything like that?
Let’s look at that account in Joshua and then look at a dozen times God tells us to remember.
Joshua 4:1-9: “When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” 4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” 8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been[a] in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.”
a. Remember the acts of God. Deuteronomy 4:9-10: “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”
Remember crossing the Red Sea, the wilderness, the Jordan. Remember the crossing points in your own life when God made a way.
b. Remember the generations that were before you. Deuteronomy 32:7: “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.”
A friend once told me we are so focused on the future that we discount history. I was at the Bethesda Clinic dinner last night for the Dr. Luke awards and heard Dr. Don Smith talk about what medicine was like in Tyler a generation ago. It was not reminiscing. It was remembering. It was a reminder of how blessed we are. It’s not war stories. It is wisdom.
c. Remember that you were slaves. Deuteronomy 5:15: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” Paul reminds the early church that there were not many wise, not many influential, not many of noble birth. We all need to be reminded of our roots and the danger of becoming cut off from them. As I’ve told you before, my mother always said to me as I went out the door, “Remember who you are, where you are from and what you stand for.”
d. Remember how you rebelled. Deuteronomy 9:7: “Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord.”
The Israelites never idealized their history. They never forgot how much they resisted God…and they never forgot their times of little or no faith. They actually wrote it down. Not just their successes but their failures. Not just their victories but their defeats. Their complaining and drifting.
e. Remember your agreement with The Lord. Joshua 24:16-24: “Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” 19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” 21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” 22 Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. 23 “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
f. Remember your success comes from Him. Deuteronomy 8:18: “You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
g. Remember to extol his work. Never lose the wonder of what He has created. Don’t try to turn him into a lucky charm. Job 38:4-13:
4 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone —
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
h. Remember to rest…and to let others rest. Deuteronomy 5:15: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
i. Remember you will be mistreated. Don’t be surprised. Don’t try to make your faith into a path to success. John 15:20: “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
j. Remember the poor. They are special to God. Galatians 2:10: “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” It’s easy to forget or to make the poor invisible. Someone else will take care of them. That’s why we have government or social service agencies. We are not to forget the poor.
k. Remember the worthlessness of idols and the sovereignty of God. Isaiah 46:8:
Remember this, keep it in mind,
take it to heart, you rebels.
9 Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
10 I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
11 From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
what I have planned, that I will do.
Remember that those who follow after worthless idols become worthless themselves.
l. Remember that a righteous person will be remembered. Psalm 112:6-9:
6 Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
they will be remembered forever.
7 They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
8 Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
9 They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor,
their righteousness endures forever;
their horn will be lifted high in honor.
You cannot remember all these things. But there may be one thing you need to go back to and sit down with and recall. Was it an act of God in your life when he took you across something? Was it an agreement or vow you have neglected? Has it been losing sight of his majesty and wonder? Has it been forgetting where you came from or losing touch with the generations of old? In all of that God is faithful.
4. Let me close with a short passage from Isaiah 46:3-4:
3 Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
and have carried since you were born.
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.