by Hansol An
The world wants you to think that you need a lot of things. In fact, that’s the point of advertising – to get you to think you need what you didn’t know previously existed. Advertisers want you to believe you need what they’re selling. In the US alone, companies spent $165 billion last year to get you to buy stuff, most of which you don’t need. But it goes beyond material possessions. Philosophies and ideas are constantly being promoted to you as necessities. The world will tell you that you need much more than some ancient religious book and its antiquated scribblings. And if you insist on taking any of it to heart, you should at least supplement it with modern science or new interpretations or insight from today’s great minds.
But that’s not what God intended or teaches us through His revelation. We find our confidence in the one who was and is and is to come, and in the book He gave us. In the beginning was God. In the beginning was God’s word. It became flesh and dwelt among us. These are profound truths that deserve deep examination beyond the brief discussion in this article. But even those of us who profess to know the depths of these truths can sometimes find it difficult to rely on them alone. We are so easily influenced by the weakness of our flesh and find confidence in the lies of the world that we lose sight of God’s steadfastness.
There are those who say they follow Christ and assume the mantle of teacher in churches, but don’t teach what has been revealed in scripture. Is it easy to stay true to the orthodox doctrine of the Bible? Of course not. God told us as much in 2 Timothy 4:3. We should expect that people will come to promote their own agendas and pander to the emerging trends in society. There are so many popular teachers and ideas out there that people gather for themselves. People will anoint those that tell them what they want to hear.
As Christians, we are called to be different; to find confidence, not in ourselves or the opinions of men, but in the One true God. He gave us everything we need to persevere, including His Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought us to saving faith and continues to save us. He gave us the thoughts and desires of our Lord through the inspired pages of the Bible so that we could be sure about what God wants us to know. He gave us His Word so that we can test every idea, philosophy and human wisdom against it. If some new remarkable idea doesn’t measure up to what scripture says, then we know it’s not that remarkable.
This is where we find our confidence. And ultimately, this is why we have assurance. Because we know that the God we worship is trustworthy, and thus, so is His word. Not only that, He gave us the Holy Spirit to give us the strength we need to endure in this life.
1 John 2:26-27 says, “But the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in Him.”
Everything we need, He has already provided.