Georgia Shaffer, a colleague, asked her blog readers what this verse means to them: “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10:35-36 NIV).

Don’t quit
Her question made me realize that I had always focused on either the rich future reward that was promised because of persevering to the end…or…that need/command to persevere. The mustering up the strength to go on. To not give up. To do the will of God. SO THAT I would receive a promised reward. That did not make me feel strong or encouraged. It felt like hard work with no immediate satisfaction.

But today, God got my attention
The question she posed caused me to think differently. To stop and absorb what was really being said in these Hebrews verses.

This is the first time that I focused on the first words of the verses…
“So don’t THROW AWAY your confidence…” It is a choice!!!

I have thought about joy being a choice but had not thought about confidence being a choice!

This is a powerful truth
If our confidence is in Him and not in ourselves, then of course we can have confidence!

I realized that because the Lord has given me His confidence, I just need to choose to appropriate His confidence. I can hold it and use it OR I can THROW AWAY that confidence and fall flat. This is the first time I can remember that the word confidence and CHOICE has connected together in my mind.

It is a choice
CHOOSING confidence. I hadn’t thought of it quite like this before.

What about you? What do these verses mean to you? What are you choosing?

Please share!