Proverbs 28:26 “He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.”
According to this proverb, only a fool believes in himself. Yet “Believe in Yourself” is universal advice given to both adults and children, the world’s remedy for anyone who is underachieving, fearful, or insufficiently ambitious. Just start to believe in yourself and your life will get better! Like so many of the world’s remedies, this one is empty and ineffective. Worse, it turns people’s focus away from God and onto themselves. G.K. Chesterton says, “Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness.” It is a delusion. Instead I am to depend on God. Already I depend on him for every breath and for the intricate operations of my body, the earth, and the universe. Even more importantly I depend on him for true purpose and direction without which all of life would be a nihilistic futility, a cosmic joke. Even the most devout atheist manufactures some excuse for the meaning of his existence, some non-material and (to him) irrational reason to care. But the Christian doesn’t have to play this game of cognitive dissonance. He can place his trust in God, our Creator and Sustainer, our Personal and Purposeful Lord, our Redeemer, the Suffering Son of Man.
Father, thank you that I don’t need to invent a false hope in my infallibility. To the extent I trust in myself, I fail. But when I trust in you, I truly live.