Hebrews 10:35-39
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
True confidence is not conjured up by human will and self-talk. We cannot swagger into the presence of God by means of our happy self-talk. Nor can we take on the enemy of our souls if the power in us self-generated. As the saying goes, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
But God is at work in and through his people. If we are aligned with God’s purposes in the world we are tapping into the source of true confidence. If God’s will is to be done and not our own, then our endurance has more to do with faith than grit. In the end it is not those who grit their teeth and hunker down to carry the burdens of life who will endure. It is those who surrender to God’s will and trust in him no matter what happens who will be marked as truly confident.
This calls for the both-and of faith. We work out our salvation in fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in us (Philippians 2:12-13). We walk the path of God’s blessing as we make our way through life. We rely on God to provide as we work for the food that endures for eternal life (John 6:27).
If we are to persevere there is something in us that engages in the struggle. That something is Christ. Boldness of faith is never conjured. Boldness of faith is embraced in faith’s object: God’s promise and Jesus’ presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 10:26-39
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again,“The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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