Confidence is the quality of being certain of your abilities, trusting in other people or plans, or feeling a sense of assurance without doubt.
Spurgeon, again, opens my eyes: be watchful — you are in the world, and the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Watch and pray. 🙏
✦ After the Assurance
All week the readings have built assurance: a new heart, a crown already made, no "if" about it, adopted as sons and daughters, a Father steering the road. And now — on the seventh day of the week — Spurgeon stands at the door and says: be watchful.
Not to take the assurance away. To keep it safe. 🙏
"While we most earnestly seek the full assurance of faith, knowing it is our strength and our joy, let us at the same time remember that there is a temptation connected with it. When you have gained this full assurance, believer, then be on your guard, for the next temptation will be: 'Soul, take your ease. The work is done. You have arrived. Now fold your arms, sit still — all will end well. Why worry yourself?'"
"Take care in those seasons when you have no doubts.... 'I said, "I shall never be moved." LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong' — and what next? 'You hid Your face, and I was troubled' (Psalm 30:6–7). Bless God for full assurance, but remember: nothing but careful living can preserve it."
"Full assurance is a priceless pearl, but when a person has a precious jewel and walks the streets, he ought to be very wary of thieves. So when the Christian has full assurance, let him be sure that Satan will try to rob him of it. Let him be more careful in his conduct and more watchful in his guard than he was before."
"And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled."
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
✦ The Temptation of Arrival
Spurgeon names a temptation few people expect: not doubt, but ease. Soul, take your ease. You have arrived. Fold your arms. The danger is not in the valley but on the mountaintop — when everything feels settled and secure.
David knew it. I said, I shall never be moved. And then — thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. The strong mountain was His favor, not David's strength.
October 5 — Le said it herself: I thought I had enough grace in my life, but I was wrong. That was not a fall — that was watchfulness. The heart that says I have not arrived is the heart Spurgeon wants. 🙏
✦ A Pearl in the Street
Spurgeon's picture: a man walking the streets with a precious jewel. He does not throw it away for fear of thieves — he holds it closer. Assurance is not the problem. Carelessness is.
October 6 — Le wrote: watch and pray, be sober and alert, keep yourself in check. If you fall, reach to Jesus. Spurgeon says the same today, and adds why: because the pearl is worth guarding. The thief only bothers with treasure.
And the guard is not anxiety. It is nearness. October 4 — stay close to Him. October 7 — live near the cross. October 8 — knee practice. The safest place for the pearl is in the hand of the One who gave it. 🙏
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
"I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."
✦ Confidence or Assurance?
Le begins with a definition — and it opens the whole reading. Confidence is certainty in your own abilities, in other people, in plans. And that is exactly where Spurgeon's danger lives. Soul, take your ease. You have arrived. That is confidence turned toward the self.
Christian assurance is something different. It is not certainty in my abilities — it is certainty in His. Not trust in plans — trust in a Father. The moment assurance slides into self-confidence, the pearl is already in the thief's reach. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
And Le names the reason with Peter's words: you are in the world. Jesus did not pray that we would be taken out of it — He prayed that we would be kept. The lion still prowls, even on the mountaintop. So the answer is the one Le has given twice this week: watch and pray. 🙏
"Be watchful — you are in the world, and the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion. Watch and pray."
Le · Neufchâtel-en-Bray · Normandy · Guard the pearlThe Mountaintop Temptation
Not doubt but ease: "Soul, take your ease, you have arrived." Take care in the seasons when you have no doubts.
Guard the Pearl
Assurance is a priceless pearl. Don't throw it away — hold it closer. Nothing but careful living preserves it.
Watch and Pray
More careful, more watchful than before. The guard is not anxiety but nearness — staying close to the One who gave the pearl.
The week's balance: Six days of assurance, then a seventh of watchfulness. Spurgeon is a good shepherd — he gives the pearl, then teaches us how to carry it.
Le's definition: By naming what confidence means, Le found the line Spurgeon draws. Self-confidence says "I have arrived." Assurance says "He has me." The first sits down and folds its arms. The second keeps watching, because it knows whose pearl it carries — and that the lion is still in the world.
Assurance and watchfulness together: These are not opposites. The one who knows she is adopted (yesterday) is the one most careful not to grieve her Father (October 7). Assurance makes the watch joyful, not fearful.
Not arrived: The motorhome is still on the road, the house not yet found — and spiritually too, Le has said God declares I have to grow some more. The pilgrim who knows she has not arrived is safe from the temptation of arrival. 🙏