One vivid memory I have from my childhood is of me standing on my front porch. I had called my best friend, gotten our moms to confirm our plans, and stood on my porch expectantly waiting to see her mom’s car pull into my driveway. Even before my friend sometimes left her home, I would be waiting for her to arrive at my house.
This is one of my first moments exhibiting confidence and hope over a certain situation. As a little girl, I would not question if my friend would arrive at my home. I was confident in believing she would arrive. I was hopeful knowing we would have a full day together to play.
As I have grown up and matured, I have stood on my home’s porch with confidence and hope for other things. I have written messages on the porch. I have prepared for college. I have entertained friends. I have prayed over my future.
Over the last few weeks, I have been humbled and refined in seeing the locations of my confidence and trust.
Imagine your laptop which holds many different folders and locations of things. The documents of confidence and hope may not be where you thought they were or where they should be. Let me explain.
As believers, we often assume our hope and confidence lies in Christ alone. We attend things that revolve around Him. We make a difference in other people’s lives. I am learning the hard reality that although these things are true, our responses to experiencing unfavorable outcomes or unwanted circumstances reveal the true locations of our hope and confidence.
Where is your confidence and hope currently located today? I am not asking you where you want to say these things are placed. In what areas of your life do you get most disappointed? Can you recall a few moments where you have felt let down recently? Remembering these things indicate areas where Jesus was not the sole source of our confidence and hope.
What even is confidence and hope?
Confidence gives us courage to depend on someone or something. Confidence is the place of our trust.
Hope is the bursting desire for a certain outcome.
I have personally been reminded that the only safe space to lay my confidence and hope is in Jesus.
What is one of your most valuable possessions? Is it a weapon, a family heirloom, a project you created, or pictures of your family? If you had a safe in your home, would you not place your most valuable possessions in it? We must be careful in choosing where to lay valuable things. The valuable things of confidence and hope do not need to be placed somewhere other than in the character of the Lord.
The Lord is reminding us in this moment that the devastation that has occurred in our lives is not because a desire was wrong. The issue many of us have had is placing our confidence and hope in fickle people and things.
Jesus is our safe. He is where our confidence and hope must be placed. His character can be trusted. Whenever our confidence and trust remains in Jesus alone, we will not be riding the temporary waves of happiness and sadness.
Where is your confidence and hope at today? Are you tired of finding yourself in the cycle of disappointment, hurt, devastation, and despair?
Be encouraged today, brother or sister, that your desires for the things Jesus has for you are good. Our misplacement of confidence and hope is bad.
What do you hope for? Where do you place your confidence?
Do you feel like a day is off to a bad start if you do not have time to apply makeup?
Do your emotions shift whenever your crush does not text you back?
Are you utterly hurt and envious whenever you see circles of friends doing things without you?
Where have you misplaced your confidence and hope?
Are you going to turn to the Lord in prayer, confess your struggles, and ask Him to help you place your confidence and hope in Him?
There are a few passages of Scripture I want to share with you on this topic.
JEREMIAH 17:5-8 CSB
“This is what the Lord says:
Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind.
He makes human flesh his strength,
and his heart turns from the Lord.
He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;
he cannot see when good comes
but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness,
in a salt land where no one lives.
The person who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.
He will be like a tree planted by water:
it sends its roots out toward a stream,
it doesn’t fear when heat comes,
and its foliage remains green.
It will not worry in a year of drought
or cease producing fruit.”
PSALM 39:7 CSB
“‘Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.”
PSALM 71:5
“For you are my hope, Lord God,
my confidence from my youth.”
Undeniably His 