Inspired Confidence

Some people are so committed and skilled at what they do that they inspire confidence. They are reliable—having done the task well many times that their work speaks for itself.

On one occasion I was returning home from a trip, and the alternator went out on the car. I found a mechanic who said he knew how to make the repair. The more I watched him work, the less confidence I had that he knew what he was doing. He was hesitant and reluctant in his work. He put a new alternator on the car, but a nut was missing from the assembly. He told me it had been lost in the process, but that it didn’t matter in the function of the alternator. Somehow I just knew that nut was more important than he said it was, but nonetheless, I was on my way once more. However, a considerable distance down the road I heard an awful noise, and the alternator light came on again. I had to cripple my way into another shop in another city and buy another alternator.

When the second mechanic pulled the alternator off, he found a loose nut that had fallen inside the alternator and had caused the damage. My lack of confidence in the first mechanic had been justified.

Once, I went to the dentist with some serious tooth pain. The major problem for me was I couldn’t tell which tooth was causing the problem. Though the x-rays showed nothing, the dentist drilled into one of my teeth to find the source of the pain.  As I listened to the sound of the drill and felt the small spray of water hitting my mouth, I realized that I don’t like to going to the dentist, I knew I was in good hands because I had confidence in the man.  An hour and a half later I was walking out, root canal and abscessed tooth dealt with. My confidence was well placed in a competent dentist with experience who knew which tooth to work on and how to fix the problem.

We all deal with situations everyday where we either have confidence or a lack of confidence. For anyone who has known God for any length of time, their confidence in Him will grow. It will grow because God is faithful. He keeps his promises. He is full of mercy, and his grace is abundant. The more we know him, the more we trust him. This is why the writer of Hebrews wrote: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:12-16).