Sunday: Winning Confidence
After desiring their good, showing sympathy, and ministering to their needs, Jesus “won their confidence.” Confidence in Latin is composed of the words con,meaning “with,” and fides meaning “faith.” Throughout the Bible several words are employed to get across the meaning of the word faith.
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In Hebrew the main root for “faith” is amn, from which we get the word amen.The basic idea is that of constancy, continuity, and reliability. It gives the idea of something solid, firm, in which one can trust and believe. It is often translated as “believe” in the context of a saving faith in God, and in another form it means “truth.” In the context of Christ’s example of winning people’s confidence, the implication would be that of evoking the kind of trust that comes from seeing unwavering and solid commitment, which in the case of Jesus came through mingling with, sympathizing with, and serving the people.
Read the following texts, all of which have a word based on the root amn (Gen. 15:6, Num. 14:11, Isa. 7:9, Hab. 2:4). How is it used in the text, and how does it convey the idea of confidence and trust?
In the Greek of the New Testament the root word that is used to convey the Hebrew amn (faith, belief) is “pistis.” This Greek word for faith implies belief, trust, absolute certainty, reliability, and assurance. In the context of Christ’s example of winning people’s confidence, the implication would be that of evoking absolute certainty, assurance, trust, and belief in response to His unselfish commitment to mingling, sympathizing, and serving.
It is important to note that in Scripture, whenever this concept of confidence is attributed to humans-as in self-confidence or confidence in a person-it can often have a negative connotation (see Mic. 7:5 and Ps. 118:9). It is positive when this confidence is attributed to God. This calls for a word of caution. As followers of Jesus, we are called to live out His pattern of mingling, sympathizing, and ministering to people’s needs. Yet, when those we serve show confidence in us, we must point them to Jesus and what He has done for them.
| If someone were to ask you, “What does true faith in God look like?” what would you answer, and why? Bring your answer to class on Sabbath. |
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In everything you do you rely on Jesus,for example you set out to buy a used car, you pray and ask Jesus to lead you in the right direction and trust that he is behind whatever you decide to buy.I try and do this in just about every decision comes at me, if you listen that small still voice gets louder and louder. FAITH.
its also our duty as the church to the community to win people's confidence and bring many souls to Christ..
We are humans subject to making mistakes, the only joy of our life is in Jesus. Therefore we must put complete trust and confidence in HIM. He is a friend, savior and redeemer, the only one who we can trust to work everything out in our behalf and will not tell the world about our problems and mistakes. THANKS BE TO GOD.
we should always put our trust and Faith in God and we can never go wrong. Some of us if we have to make a decision we tend to ask someone else for advise before we ask God and in doing so we fail in whatever the decision was. Put God first in everything because he knows best.
It seems evident that there are numerous opportunities for witnessing in our communities once we identify the felt needs of the people around us, and consistently do good to them without ceasing while reminding them of the power of Jesus to forgive sins and set humans free. As people watch us and admire our genuineness in all we do for them, they shall be drawn to Christ. Serving the needy people around us seems to be one way of lifting Jesus higher and higher, and as He promised, He shall draw men unto Himself. Let us join hands together to inspire confidence in Jesus through the little acts of love within our ability.
Trusting in God, is asking and believing, but most importantly waiting on God and being patient. When we take matters in our own hands it is never a guaranteed outcome, but with God we know he is either preparing us or refining us!
I love this last statement, ' Yet, when those we serve show confidence in us, we must point them to Jesus and what He has done for them.'
This is what we ought to do,we are only vessels that God is using. When we have seen that the people we are serving are showing confidence in what we believe in,let us point them to the source. We need to point them to JESUS. Failure to do that we see that these people, will be looking up to us and when we fail, not that I am promoting that we fail but it does happen at times, they do not fail with us. Rather let both of us put our faith in God,let Him be our example and we follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
Although we can never win confidence through our own efforts alone, we must play our part by mingling, showing sympathy, and ministering to needs---- and doing these things out of a attitude of love and compassion, not obligation.