RSS FeedDon't Get Overconfident
Written by Peter Karl Youngren on October 16th 2007No matter what your job, career or experience, one of the ditches that any person can fall into is overconfidence. Especially when you focus on yourself and your own strengths and experiences. Here Peter pledges his unwavering devotion to Jesus, but there is one element of his commitment that is lacking - humility. He doesn’t come to the Lord in humility and proclaim it; he boldly pronounces it to both Christ and all of His disciples that he will never fall away. Peter’s bold proclamation reminds me of some of the worship songs that we sing on Sunday: “I will do this Lord”, “I will do that”, “I will go here” “I will go there”. These are fine, but if they are missing the needed reliance/dependence on God’s grace then they aren’t going to amount to too much.
But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.“ Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.“ Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.“ All the disciples said the same thing too. MATTHEW 26:33-35
God is the one who graces you to do whatever you’re going to do. He has preplanned “good works” for you to accomplish in this life, but only a total reliance on Him and His grace will ensure completion of these tasks. All bold proclamations, although they sound good, end up with disastrous results because they were never done in grace: Peter did end up denying Jesus and Peter did end up running away. Certainly not because he wanted to. His bold assertion was exactly what he wanted to do. He never wanted to deny Jesus, but he did. Why? For the same reason that many Christians do things that they never wanted to do, but find themselves overcome by. When we rely on God’s grace, and don’t get overconfident, the Lord walks us through life by His Spirit. And when you walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh you don’t sin.
This week, instead of making bold assertions about who you are and what you’re going to do, try focusing on Jesus. Don’t get overconfident except in Him. He’ll never let you down.
Dominic Cerisano
Sheeju,
Thank you for this very insightful post. Your father’s sermon this Sunday involved Mark 9:14-29.
The disciples could not drive out demons from a boy because his condition the result of his father’s disbelief:
v24 - Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!‘
His father had been focusing on the circumstantial evidence of his boy’s condition, which fed his unbelief and blinded his faith (which he had all along).
The authority to drive out demons comes from Jesus. The moment the boy’s father refocused on this truth, the circumstances changed completely.
This is echoed again here:
Matthew 17:20: He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.‘[a]
So, even a moment of trusting Jesus will overcome lifetime of trusting circumstance.
Your post reminds me that circumstances include personal abilities.