“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” 1 John 3:21 NIV
The word translated as “confidence” signifies “boldness of speech”. When one speaks openly, they have confidence in their words. This is the attitude which is possessed by the one who is confident, or bold, toward God. Their heart is right with Him, and so when they speak (out loud or simply in their heart) to God, there is nothing which hinders their words that is secretly hidden away and that they would be ashamed of. B.F. Westcott (The Epistles of St. John [Eerdmans], p. 118) writes, “The thought here is of the boldness with which the son appears before the Father, and not of that with which the accused appears before the Judge.” This is illustrated by a story of a Roman emperor who was parading through the streets of the capital in a victory celebration. Roman soldiers lined the parade route to keep back the cheering masses. At one point along the route there was a small platform where the royal family was sitting. As the emperor approached, his youngest son, who was just a little boy, jumped down, burrowed through the crowd, and tried to run out to meet him. One of the guards caught the boy by the arm and said, “You can’t do that! Don’t you know who that is? That’s the emperor!” But the boy quickly replied, “He may be your emperor, but he’s my father!” (From “Our Daily Bread”, July, 1977.) John wants us to know that if we are God’s children, we have that kind of confident access to the Father’s presence.
PRAYER THOUGHT
Thank You, Lord, that we can have confidence in coming to You.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Lord, what peaceful assurance we have when we are living in Your will and conducting our lives in a manner pleasing to You so that we can come confidently to Your throne of Grace. AMEN
I.B.R.A. Readings
Exodus 15
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