WHAT a blessed experince to be back with God's workers again after all of those lonely years apart!" The speaker was an elderly man sitting across from me at the hotel table. We were attending a union conference session. After nearly thirty years' estrangement from his brethren this former leader in Israel was at last "back home" with the people of God. During the days we associated and prayed together, over and over he expressed the great joy that filled his heart as he fellowshiped with "the brethren" again.
My new acquaintance had carried heavy responsibilities in the cause of God. He had served as president of one of our large mission unions. Then misunderstandings crept in. Aspersions were cast upon his leadership. Confidence was broken down, and soon the crushed leader could bear the burdens no longer. He stepped aside. His lips did not reveal these details to me. He was too joyous in his restored fellowship with "his brethren." Other friends pieced the story together for me between meetings.
Who can know the lonely hours, the heartaches, the battle against bitterness this crushed man of God had known for thirty years! All because confidence had been destroyed!
"Satan . . . knows that if he can set brother to watch brother in the church and in the ministry some will be so disheartened and discouraged as to leave their posts of duty."—Testimonies to Ministers, p. 189. How sad when men have their hearts broken and their spirits crushed by unkindness and lack of confidence to the extent that it drives them out of the work and sometimes out of the church. How much we need confidence among brethren in our worker ranks.
Some time ago I conducted a series of revival meetings in one of our churches.
Twenty years before two brethren in that church had lost confidence in each other. During those long years they had scarcely spoken to each other. To mutual acquaintances they kept up a tirade of criticism against each other. It was a terrible thing. It split the church members. The attitude of the feuding brethren was reflecting in two factions that developed in the church. Untold harm to the cause resulted. I was thankful for what the Spirit of God did for those two estranged members during the two weeks of revival meetings. With tears streaming down their cheeks they put their arms around each other, and the old barriers were broken down. What a blessed experience it brought to the whole church when confidence was restored.
Recently I was reading our Salisbury daily newspaper, The Rhodesia Herald. On one of the inside pages in small headlines I found these four words: "Confidence Is Our Need." They were words spoken to the Salisbury Rotary Club by the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, Sir Edgar Whitehead. These four words fairly leaped out at me. "Confidence Is Our Need." These four words constitute a challenging message to workers in the cause of God today. Because of the lateness of the hour, because of the imminent appearing of our Master, because of the challenge of an unfinished task, there is nothing that we as workers need more than confidence in God and in one another.
As I read Sir Edgar's statement the words of the apostle Paul flashed into my mind, "Cast not away therefore your confidence," he counseled the Hebrews of his day and the Adventist workers of our day (Heb. 10:35).
We are living in times of tensions and trouble. Because of lack of international confidence the world shivers in a cold war. Suspicion torments the minds of world leaders. No basis for confidence between the East and West appears to be found. Anything one side proposes it is certain the other side will oppose. Sinister intent is imputed by both sides. Stress and strain tests our old world in many areas.
It is a nerve-racking and terrible thing when such lack of confidence exists among leaders of the world. How much more to be lamented it is when such feelings creep in among members and workers in the cause of God. The Advent Movement is an international movement. Likewise it brings together varied races and all types of personalities and dispositions from among the peoples represented. How important for us to ever bear in mind that regardless of what flag or race we may represent we are first Christians. As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ there must be confidence among us.
Living as we do in the most crucial period of the history of the world and of the church, when strife, tensions, and suspicions of all sorts are rampant about us, somehow I believe God's message for each one of us as workers is: "Cast not away therefore your confidence." We must not permit the mistrust or the suspicion of the world about us to insinuate themselves into our ranks. There must be no mistrust, no probing or impugning of motives, no lack of faith among those who bear the vessels of the Lord in such solemn times as those in which we live.
Every worker among us is interested in being a successful laborer. We long and pray for power in our ministry. We daily plead with God to use us in expanding and finishing His work in our part of the vineyard. The Lord's messenger clearly lays down the conditions for success, for power in our lives and labor. We would do well to read these inspired words frequently.
"The success of our work depends upon our love to God and our love to our fellow men. When there is harmonious action among the individual members of the church, when there is love and confidence manifested by brother to brother, there will be proportionate force and power in our work."—Testimonies to Ministers, p. 188. (Italics supplied.)
"Love and confidence manifested by brother to brother" will bring success and power in our work!
What Is Confidence?
The English word confidence comes from a Latin infinitive, confidere, "to trust." Confidence is synonymous with trust and faith. If we trust a person's good offices, if we have faith in his sincerity, though we may not always agree with his views and the way he does things, we may still retain confidence in him. Confidence does not make a person a rubber stamp. It does make him charitable. It creates trust and faith in the sincerity and the motives of the brethren.
Confidence is not something we may demand by right. Even our position in the work of God may demand it only conditionally. Confidence is something we must merit. Confidence begets confidence. Confidence is one of those magic qualities, like love. The more you manifest it toward those about you, the more it increases and comes back to you. Is there a fellow worker who mistrusts you, whose confidence you apparently do not enjoy? Do you trust him? Do you have confidence in him? Confidence is a two-way street, and it requires two to travel it!
We can also compare confidence to a four-legged stool. If one leg is taken away the stool is weakened. In Part II of this study we will give attention to four confidence builders.
"Let us cherish a spirit of confidence in . . . our brethren."—Ibid., p. 500.
