Where is your confidence?  Is it in men, princes, gold and silver, your flesh, or the Lord?

Is your confidence in men – Ps 118:8 – during perilous times not only can men fail you, they can turn on you.  Study the Bible and history and you will see repeated instances of this.  Joab turned on David.  Demas turned back to the world and forsook Paul.  However, when your trust is in the Lord, and he gives you someone to help you, you can trust God to work through that person for your benefit.  Like a wife and husband, 1 Pet 3:5.

Is your confidence in princes – Ps 118:9 – lots of people are looking to the elections to remedy our problems.  A country angrily divided over moral, racial, economic and political issues and living on borrowed money to give the false impression of prosperity will succumb to a man like the antichrist when it suddenly and unexpectedly goes through an economic collapse.  It happened in Germany under Hitler.  You cannot stop this madness politically. And God won’t be there to stop it, either.  As a matter of fact, he is often behind it.

Is your confidence in riches – Job 31:24-28 – Job was certain that if he had put confidence in gold that he would have “denied the God that is above.”  Agur, even though he was a self-proclaimed brute, was aware that if God had given him riches, he would have denied God, and said, “Who is the Lord?”  [Prov 30:8-9a].  In Prov 23:5 we see that riches will fly away when you need them. In Prov 11:4 they profit not in the day of wrath. We find our marching orders in 1 Tim 6:17-19.  We are not to trust in uncertain riches.  Rather we are to be ready to distribute.

Is your confidence in the flesh – Phil 3:3 – this is the root problem with where we put our confidence.  Paul was as good as they get when it comes to being a good Christian.  Yet he put no confidence in his flesh.  He knew that, like the Pharisees, of whom he had been one, we can do what we’re doing in the name of God without God.  Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Stand in his strength alone; The arm of flesh will fail you, Ye dare not trust your own. 

Is your confidence in the Lord – Prov 3:26 – see the context in verses 24-25.  When your confidence is in the Lord, you can lie down and not be afraid, you can sleep well, you don’t have to be afraid of sudden fear, and you don’t have to be afraid of the desolation of the wicked.  And the desolation of the wicked is coming!!  Look how confidence in the Lord helped Hezekiah and Jerusalem against Sennacherib in Is 36:4, 7, 15; 37:6, 36, etc.  Consider Daniel who went into the captivity.  He had a long and fruitful life in Babylon and even ended up serving the Medes and Persians.  The Lord took care of him because his confidence was in the Lord.  The Lord will take care of you.  According to Prov 14:26 there is strong confidence in the fear of the Lord.  So, fear him, not people, politicians, the news media, the economy, or any of that.  Bad things have no effect on God!!!

Conclusion: You can truly rest in the Lord.  He is the only one you can trust and you need to trust him fully.