What does it really mean to not “cast away your confidence”?  Does that mean that once we believe something we shouldn’t ever change what we believe?  We make a decision and we simply have to stick with it right or wrong? 

I think we all know that would be foolish to operate our lives that way,  but what is this confidence that we see mentioned in this verse?  

Your confidence isn’t talking about what you believe but how you talk about what you believe. When you see the word confidence here think about “outspoken, unashamed boldness in the message of Jesus Christ”.

35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

Hebrews 10:35 KJV

Your confidence matters.  They say that any situation you enter into can be handled if you house the right attitude inside of yourself.  Think about it.  

Many times we sacrifice things or allow ourselves to be swayed or moved because of what others say or think.  We aren’t holding ourselves to what we know is true.  Our confidence is being swayed. 

Confidence Defined

That word “confidence” literally means “freedom, openness, especially in speech; boldness, confidence” (see Grk 3954).  In other words, this is talking about what you believe and how you discuss what you believe.  

Our world tries to tell you that to disagree with someone is to not love them.  The goal of this line of thinking is to remove our confidence from us.  

The enemy knows that when we begin to speak openly about who Jesus is then the message will begin to turn hearts to receive the good news.  

The Bible tells us that the blind eyes will open and deaf will begin to hear and it all starts by the power associated with the Word of God. 

In the verses before this, God tells us exactly what we are to remain confident in the face of.

33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.

Hebrews 10:33 KJV

Persecution plagued these Christians, but in the face of the pressure to sit down and shut up and go along with the flow of things, God is telling us that we need to do the EXACT opposite.

People are being persecuted.  

Many times we have just accepted this persecution as normal. We don’t talk about Jesus in our schools because “it might make someone uncomfortable”, but we can talk about our raging sex addictions (in the form of Tinder) or drug problems and make TikToks out of them no problem. We post, talk about and subscribe to TV shows, movies and apps that fill our hearts and minds with nothing positive.

Have you surrendered?  Are you quiet now?  

I hear a lot of Christians tell me that they just need to be a witness for Jesus by how they act.  

This is great. You should be able to see there is something different about you by how you interact with others, but what about your voice?  

¹⁴ But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? ¹⁵ And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”^[a]

Romans 10:14-15 NLT

It is up to us to not only look like Christians, but to also openly talk about, interact with people over, and meditate on the Bible.

Don’t be guilt of “throwing away your confidence”  by not speaking openly about your Savior.  

If we put up a fake front and are fake about our relationship with Christ, people will know it! 

You aren’t fooling anyone by being religious about Jesus.  When you or I operate this way, we end up pushing people away from Jesus not towards Him because they view Jesus as being fake.

If I tried to tell you that I knew the president of the United States and could introduce you to him, but the only think I really knew about him was just a few facts that I read on his Wikipedia page, you’d start to get suspicious. You wouldn’t believe me and wouldn’t trust my “relationship” with him.

The same holds in how we talk to others about Jesus!

The sad truth is that many of us get “stage fright” when talking about Jesus because we “have to remember all the right words” or “don’t know what to say.”  This is a key sign that we are too focused on what others think of us (which I came to realize this year is actually pride – What is Pride?) and not built up in our personal relationship with Jesus (11 Things to fast-track your relationship with God).

If we can quote a bunch of scripture – facts from the wikipedia page of Jesus’s life – but can’t actually tell you anything about Jesus from your own personal relationship with Christ, then that’s a clear sign that we need to work on that relationship first.

Trust me I’m right there with the best of them, but the truth is that when someone asks you about your brother or sister or father or mother you never think “what was I supposed to say?”  You know your family and you know how to describe them (good or bad)! 

The same holds true for Jesus.  

Renew your mind to the fact that Jesus is your Savior and Lord.  Remind yourself constantly of the right standing and relationship with Him, and exercise a real relationship with Him.  

So what is “your confidence”?  Put plainly. It’s your ability to talk openly and freely about Jesus Christ and what He did in your life.  Don’t ever lose your fire and desire to flow out to the hurting as a living example of love.  Be God’s hands and feet and it starts with how you behave, but continues to how you converse with people.

Make your conversations “seasoned with salt” (the Word) and make it so natural that people realize it’s just a part of your life.