Episode 7 -- Spiritual Combat c3.2 -- The Means to Confidence in God

How can I obtain greater confidence in God?

In our last episode we read about confidence in God.

• Confidence is trust in God.
• Confidence is part of the virtue of Hope.
• We trust that God will give us the means to union with Himself. We must be confident that he wants to help us.
• We distrust our own strength, but not His.

How do we obtain confidence in God? Scupoli gives us four means. In our last episode, we read about the first two.

1. Beg God for this confidence!
2. Meditate on God’s almighty power -- nothing is too hard for Him. Meditate on his infinite goodness and mercy as shown in the sufferings and love of Christ Jesus and in the parables of Christ. Our Lord is the good shepherd who is looking for his lost sheep!

St Philip Neri knew how to combine distrust of self with trust in God. Beware of St Philip! One day he wanted to burst the bubble of two young Dominicans who lacked distrust of self.

And one day, meeting two Dominicans, he passed between them, saying, “Let me pass, I am without hope,” meaning that he had no confidence in himself or in anything he had done. The good fathers, understanding the words in their ordinary sense, stopped him and began to console him, and to ask him a multitude of questions; at last he smiled and said, “I am past all hope of myself, but I trust in God.”