graduated to the second stage of his divinely appointed
“Breakthrough in ‘basic training,’ in that he would find himself hiding in caves
Confidence”
Sunday School Lesson for January 27
Parents have a heavy responsibility to look after their
children from the moment the child is born. When a child
needs nutrition, the parents are to provide it. In sickness
and in health, the child looks to responsible parents for
whatever is needed, from clothing and shelter to guidance,
rules, behavioral boundaries, and all the rest of it. As a child
grows into those troubling and worrisome teenage years,
dependence on the parents morphs into a growing desire for
independence that will hopefully lead to unsubsidized,
responsible adulthood. Those childhood years go hurtling
by, and to those of us who have raised children, they seem
all too short.
As human beings, We were born of water when we
entered this life on earth, and if we receive the free gift of
God through Jesus Christ our Lord i.e., we are born again
spiritually (John 3:3). At that point, we become the ultimate
responsibility of Jesus Christ, the sovereign Creator of
heaven and earth (see John 1 and Colossians 1:16-17). We
are deeply responsible to Him for what we do from that point
on, but since we don’t physically meet with Him and look into
His eyes every day, we tend to forget our responsibilities.
The Spirit of God begins a good work in us when we
receive the new birth, which brings with it the indwelling gift
of His Spirit and He always finishes what He starts
(Philippians 1:6). Any failure that may come about in this
process is our fault, not His. He’s faithful even when we
aren’t, and He never ‘drops the ball.’
But even when we’re diligently pursuing spiritual
growth, there are painful times when Jesus seems far away,
but remember, the Vinedresser never closer to the vine than
when it is being pruned. Our confidence in His loving
protection should never fail as long as we are living
blameless lives.
David, incidentally, had a perspective most of us lack;
he had, in his teenage years, been given the responsibility of
keeping the family sheep; Jesse knew he could trust his
youngest son with those precious-but-wayward animals, and
young David took his work very seriously – he loved the
sheep to the point of risking his own life to save them.
A teenager who was willing to tangle with a bear and a
lion on behalf of his father’s sheep with nothing but rocks
and a club might seem fairy-taleish until we realize the true
Source of David’s indomitable strength, character, and
success. We also need to realize that those shepherd years
were divinely appointed – not long after killing Goliath, David
as the commander and governor of a ragtag army of
hundreds, many of them with wives and children. He was, in
effect, their king and their military commander for more than
a decade, and the job wasn’t an easy one. What he may or
may not have realized was that God was preparing him for
kingship in a much larger way.
As the redeemed in Christ, we need to remember that
aspect of our relationship with our Lord when we’re
struggling. He engineers all things to work together for our
good, regardless of how it may seem, and we are ‘the called’
Romans 8:28 refers to.
David never failed in those early years to place his trust
in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, praising His Lord
with his every thought and pondering the glories of heaven
and earth during times of rest. As we read the psalms of
David, we see into the rich heart of a very godly man.
If you and I were to write verses that truly revealed the
innermost thoughts of our hearts, how would they read to
other people? Is God really the centerpiece of our innermost
thoughts?
Psalm 23:1-2 (KJV) 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I
shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in
green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still
waters.
The Lord is the Shepherd of all who believe in faith; He
supplies everything we need – but do we really believe that
fact enough to trust Him? Who do we really trust when our
bank accounts are full and our earthly future seems secure?
Those of us who don’t see God as the Source of all true
blessings have a warped worldview that needs to be
overhauled.
Green pastures and still waters are like heaven to a
sheep, but as we enjoy His pastures of endless provision, we
need to be careful that we don’t wander off in search of
pastures greener than His. That’s the fastest way to a
shipwreck of faith.
All the people of this world have gone astray; there is
none righteous, no not one, and it grieves the Spirit of God
when we follow the world instead of Christ and wander away
from His perfect will for our lives. Don’t ever forget that
friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4).
To truly know and understand these elements of our
relationship with Jesus Christ, we must make Him the focus of
our goals and our thoughts (we need to have the mind of
Christ according to First Corinthians 2:16). What that means
is that in our work and our interactions with those in our
respective spheres of influence, we must continually be on
our guard against the deadly sin that comes from yielding to
the world, the flesh and the devil.
 As His sheep, we should know His voice, come when He
calls, cherish His presence, enjoy the company of our fellow
saints whenever possible, and yield to His hand of discipline.
Verse 3 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
In a world that works tirelessly to drag us away from
God, we all need First John 1:9 and the restoration of our
souls that comes from keeping short accounts with Him.
Remember Psalm 66:18! In Second Corinthians 4:16 we
read that our outward man is perishing (and it is – just look
in the mirror), yet Paul goes on to say that our inward man
is renewed day by day.
He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His
Name’s sake: Now what in the world does that mean to you
and me?
Let’s put this principle to work in a practical way – when
people see the level of integrity with which we as followers of
Christ handle our relationships with people, daily situations,
not to mention the material things that belong to others,
they should see Christ in and through us.
Remember, one of the worst parts of David’s sin against
God with Bathsheba was the fact that the enemies of God
were blaspheming God’s name because they knew about
David’s blatant sin and they also knew David as God’s man.
A long time ago, I invited a woman to visit the church of
which I was a member at the time, and she said she would
never visit our church because she had worked as an
employee of one of the prominent members of our church
and didn’t see a shred of Christianity expressed in that
member’s life – ever. As a matter of fact, she said that
person was absolutely horrible to work for. Granted, I wasn’t
hearing both sides of the story, but in one regard, it was an
interesting perspective. If the allegations were true, then
where were the fruits of the Spirit?
You and I need to consider the fact, as it has been said
so many times, that we are the only Jesus some people may
ever see, and that doesn’t just refer to our verbal witness,
as important as that witness is. We all know in our better
moments that there are faithless people watching us very
closely and quietly, especially when they find that we are
children of God. We should ALLOW Jesus to lead us in the
paths of righteousness!! Are we allowing Him to do that?
The lost people in our spheres of influence diligently
observe the way we handle our work, company resources
and property, the way we solve our problems, and the way
we deal with difficult people and situations. They notice
whether we genuinely care about them in the things we say
and the way we react to their human concerns.
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Is the Lord of heaven and earth glorified in your life and
mine as people observe us, or do we operate in a manner
totally driven by the flesh when a stressful situation
squeezes us? Example: Do we expect others to modify their
behavior so as not to make us angry?
Exodus 20:7 is the direct Commandment of God that
tells us not to take God’s name in vain!! That doesn’t simply
refer irreverent speech, i.e., using the name of Jesus Christ
as an expletive or giving God a last name that starts with a
d. It has more to do with whether or not we genuinely reflect
the nature of God after we take His name in claiming to be a
son or a daughter of His!
To accept Christ and then continue to imitate the world
at large with no evidence of our salvation is empty and vain
in God’s eyes. Sadly, our vanity is expressed all too vividly in
the worthless things we place before our eyes, like the books
some of us choose to read, the movies some of us watch
and in some of the absolutely not-funny things we laugh at.
Choices like that have a lot to do with who we really are in
Christ and whether He is at the center of our thinking.
How many people vainly espouse Christianity as their
belief system yet express no desire to please God,
deliberately refuse to grow in faith and knowledge of Christ,
and don’t even pretend to serve Christ in any way?
Let’s consider the premise of the verse again:
Christ leads us in the paths of righteousness for His
Name’s sake!
You see, for Christ to lead us in the path of
righteousness, every day we have to follow Him. So where
does the path of righteousness lead? That’s easy: it leads
to Paradise and ultimately to the golden streets of the New
Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22), but too many church-goers
are living like practical atheists and simply aren’t following
Christ at all. Let’s examine ourselves daily to make sure
we’re in the faith.
Verse 4 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me.
There are dedicated Christians who walk through the
valley of the shadow of death every day. In other countries,
the shadow of death is cast by the government or by militant
groups that hate Christians, and those same shadows are
growing here. We should thank God every day for Christian
legal organizations that are restraining those wicked forces!
Persecution notwithstanding, we have all been stalked
by physical death since Eve’s pearly white teeth sank into
the forbidden fruit – one of my dearest friends is in a life or
death struggle with cancer right now that can be directly has it in His unquenchable power to give us so much more
traced back to the curse of death that started in Eden. than we can imagine, and in Paul’s first letter to the
So many Americans were (and are) outraged at Michael Corinthians (ch 2 vs 9), he reminds us that no eye has seen,
Vick’s dog fighting ring and were so moved when Ellen no ear has heard, neither has anyone been able to conceive
DeGeneres’ donated dog was confiscated by the doggie the things God has prepared for those of us who love Him.
adoption agency. Elwood McQuaid writes that those people Don’t be troubled, and don’t be afraid. He has gone to
are pounding their chests where their hearts are, and we prepare a place for us, and He will come again, bringing
would expect them to. But it’s sobering to see how the folks those believers with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17) who
who are pushing animal rights and green policies care a lot have preceded us in physical death – absent from the body,
more about animals and trees than they do the hundreds of they have been present with the Lord in Paradise,
thousands of Christians who being sold into slavery and continually conscious, enjoying the goodness and mercy of
tortured for their faith every year. Yet even in the places Christ in a personal way.
where people are being marginalized, “Picture if you can the hopelessness of To those of us who truly believe and
maimed, and murdered, people continue Annie Johnson Flint's position when she receive the Spirit of God, we can be sure
to come to Jesus Christ for the peaceful finally received the verdict of the doctors that goodness and mercy shall follow us
of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, that
comfort of His rod and His staff and the all the days of our lives, and that we will
henceforth she would be a helpless
eternal hope He offers that quite invalid. indeed dwell in the house of the Lord
obviously extends beyond the grave. “Her own parents had been taken forever.
from her in childhood, and her foster When we’re weathering the
parents both passed away.
Verse 5 Thou preparest a table
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“Her one sister was very frail and
inevitable storms of life, we need to focus
before me in the presence of mine struggling to meet her own situation on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our
enemies: thou anointest my head bravely. faith. And we shouldn’t cast away our
with oil; my cup runneth over. “Annie was in a condition where she confidence (Hebrews 10:35) – God
was compelled to be dependent upon the
No matter how our enemies plot care of others who could not afford to
rewards those who diligently seek Him
against us, our relationship with Christ minister to her except as compensated by and draw near to Him.
should be our mainstay, our final hope, her. Are you experiencing pain and
our unbreakable link to heaven on earth. “In after years she always stated that tribulation through physical, financial, or
her poems were born of the need of
He has it in His power to keep us healthy, others and not from her own need; but
emotional circumstances beyond your
protected and fed, even during the worst one knows full well that she never could control? It’s possible that nobody fully
circumstances imaginable. Some of the have written as she did for the comfort understands your situation (except Christ
greatest hymns we sing in our churches and help of thousands of others if she had Himself), but when things seem most
not had the background of facing those
come from the hearts of men and women very crises in her own life.”
hopeless, it might be good to pause and
who, like David, placed their trust in God read the words of a lonely prophet who
even when circumstances seemed so totally dark as to be saw the destruction of his homeland and its capitol city and
without hope. Many of the great hymn writers would never the carrying away of his countrymen into bondage.
have written a single verse had they not passed through the
deep waters of pain and chose to trust in the promises of “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall
Christ for comfort and hope… fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the
fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the
fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater
in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase
God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds'
To added affliction He addeth His mercy
feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace…
Annie Johnson Flint
Habakkuk 3:17-19a
Verse 6 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the Grace and glory, and power and dominion and might be
house of the LORD for ever. His forever and forever! Maranatha. R.W.M.
Who among us would reject these words and this
destiny? The Lord in whom we as Christians have trusted
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