With the Confidence of the Children of God

Confidence...do we really think of that as relating to our faith?  Or do we assume that it is part of faith itself?  What does it mean to be confident in our faith?  What does it mean to pray or to live "with the confidence of the children of God"?

Confidence in faith is a funny thing.  We are told in this season of Lent that we are to be humble, submissive.  So where does confidence come into the picture?  It has nothing to do with a lack of doubt--doubt is part of faith, or we would not be real. So what is confidence in the faith?  Our United Methodist liturgy includes "with the confidence of the children of God" as an introductory phrase to The Lord's Prayer before the Eucharist.  What does that mean?  With what confidence do we dare pray the prayer of our Lord?  Is it an assurance that is so profound that we can do nothing else?  What does it mean to have "confidence as the childen of God?"

So, what does it mean to pray, to live, to be "with the confidence of the children of God?"  ARE the children of God confident?  Do the children of God REALLY believe that God has their best interest at heart or do the children of God try desperately to control how Creation treats them?  But confidence has little to do with ability.  Confidence is about assurance, about seeing things in a different way.   Confidence is not surety that something is the way is seems;  rather, it is about trust, trust that God is God.

So, then, let us pray with the confidence of the children of God...Let us pray with the assurance not that everything will turn out alright, but that God is God.


On this twentieth day of Lenten observance, think about what it means to be a confident Christian.  Let us pray with the confidence of the children of God...

Grace and Peace on this Lenten Journey,

Shelli