Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Have Quiet Confidence | Historical Books | 1 Kings 15:25-32

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

Do you feel unworthy? What are you insecure about? How do we respond to God's grace? In today's episode, Tanya shares how 1 Kings 15:25-32 encourages us to live with the quiet confidence that comes from our King. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Kings 15:25-32

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. Today we're going to talk about our unworthiness and God's solution. So when you finish something and look back, what's the first thing you notice? Do you notice what went right or what went wrong? Do you celebrate your strengths or do you dwell on your flaws? For me, that tension showed up this week during a team presentation.

We had prepared for days, but everyone in the room still really nervous. So right before, or I shouldn't say right before, it was a couple hours before, but I said, hey, what's the one question you hope they don't ask you? See, I thought if we could just get that out of the way, we could just move on more confidently and be ready to present. Everyone's answers to that question were actually very personal, because beneath each was an insecurity. What if I'm not what they want? What if I can't explain myself well enough? What if I don't measure up? The presentation went fine. But when I followed up later with encouragements about what they did well, every single teammate replied with something they thought they had done poorly.

And these weren't rookies. These are seasoned professionals. Yet even for them, the feeling of I'm not enough was right there under the surface. And mine were leading the pack. Now, that's not just a workplace problem. This is a human problem. And in today's passage, we see how feelings of unworthiness connect to something deeper. Our struggle with loyalty to God.

In 1 Kings 15, Nadab takes the throne after his father Jeroboam. Now, you might hope for a fresh start, but scripture says that he, quote, did evil in the eyes of the Lord following the ways of his father. He simply repeated the same sense. Now, Nadab's story is not just about politics, it's about loyalty. God had chosen Jeroboam, and yet, Jeroboam let Israel into idolatry. Nadab kept that pattern going. Their unworthiness wasn't in a lack of intelligence or a lack of leadership,

it was in disloyalty. And this is where their story mirrors ours. When we ask, what if I'm not enough? Often it's not about skill, but about where our real devotion lies. Because we know deep down how easily our hearts wonder. We know we haven't been fully loyal to God. And that sense of unworthiness is real. The dynasty of Jerobam collapsed because of his disloyalty.

And if our standing before God depended on our loyalty, our story would collapse as well. But here's the hope. Where every king of Israel failed, Christ succeeded. He is the worthy king. He is the true son of David who never turned aside to idols. Think about the cross. Our disloyalty, our divided hearts, our unworthiness. All of it placed on him, nailed there, buried with him. And then we are raised with him so we can live as his beloved bride. We are clothed in his worthiness. This changes everything. This reframes our past. We are forgiven. This secures our future. We belong to him. And it gives us confidence in our present. We live not in our own worth, but in his. Jeroboam's dynasty ended in judgment, but Christ's reign endures forever. In Revelation 5, John weeps because no one is found worthy to open the scroll. But then the lion of Judah appears, the root of David, the lamb who was slain, and And all of heaven cries out, worthy is the lamb. This is why we sing a song called Is He Worthy?

We sing it at our church. I absolutely love it. I encourage you to look it up. We sing it and it hits so deeply because it names our longing. Who is enough? Who is worthy? And it gives us the only answer that satisfies Jesus Christ. So how do we respond?

Well, Nadab simply walked in his father's sins, but you are not doomed to repeat your patterns of dislikes. loyalty or anyone else's. Christ is broken that cycle. His jealous love calls you into daily devotion and trust. So here are three ways you can respond. You can name the idols that compete for your loyalty and bring them honestly before God. You can practice repentance not just once, but as a rhythm of your life. You can live with the quiet confidence that comes from belonging to a worthy king. We all feel unworthy at times. We replay mistakes. We dwell on insecurities and we wonder if we'll ever measure up. And in one sense we're right, we don't measure up. Our loyalty falters. Our hearts wonder. But the story doesn't

end there. God has given us a king who is worthy, a savior whose loyalty never wavers, a Lord who calls us his children. So instead of being crushed by our unworthiness, let it point you to Christ, because his solution is greater than your failure, and his worthiness is more than enough for you.