Petra was recently chosen as one of the “New 7 Wonders of the World.” Petra was a thriving city in the desert with buildings and homes carved directly into the cliff walls. As many as 20,000 people once lived in the Petra area, accessing water from an amazing system of cisterns and ceramic conduit.
In 600 B.C., the inhabitants of Petra were Edomites, descendants of Job. Convinced the desert fortress in which they lived made them impregnable, the Edomites grew proud. The Edomites put their confidence in their desert fortress. That was misplaced confidence. God spoke judgment over their pride:
“‘Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill. Though thou should make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down,’ saith the Lord” Jeremiah 49:16.
Do we really think we are all that powerful? The Bible says repeatedly, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” 1 Peter 5:5. Do you really want to have God opposed to you? Do you think you can win? If so, you have misplaced confidence.
You know who else had misplaced confidence? Those who built the Tower of Babel. God saw their pride and ambition, and struck them with a unique punishment: they could no longer communicate. Pharaoh and the Egyptians had misplaced confidence in their golden empire and God humbled them in ten different ways. The people of Jericho had misplaced confidence, believing the walls of their city could not be scaled or toppled. They were wrong. Yet, somehow we continue to justify our own misplaced confidence.
I deserve a little swagger—I’m rich! I deserve special treatment—I’m beautiful! I deserve a bigger office, fancy car, impressive house, after all—I’m smarter than everyone else!
Have you seen what misplaced confidence leads to? Remember the Titanic? They built a luxury ship, named it after mythical giants, told everyone it was unsinkable, and it failed to complete its maiden voyage. The greatest ship ever made sank on its first trip. Misplaced confidence.
Do you place confidence in your talents, your resume, your looks, or your people skills?
Or maybe it’s your money, your power, your authority, or your experience?
None of these things are bad, necessarily. But our confidence should be in God. James addresses misplaced confidence:
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘IF THE LORD WILLS, we will live and also do this and that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” James 4:13-16.
Dear God, thank you for the traits that give us confidence: talent, education, experience, and more. But remind us to always be humble, to “think no more highly than we ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment” Romans 12:3. May we place all of our confidence in YOU.
AΩ.
My friends and I loved the ‘80s Christian band Petra. None of us had heard of the obscure city in Jordan from which the band took its name. But we soon found out. I had no interest in Petra until I heard their song, “Godpleaser.”
Household Words: 