While I’m in St. Louis on sabbatical, one of my primary goals is to learn about the assets and business of my family up here including several rental properties. One of those assets is a 1916 Chevrolet Pick Up truck. This truck was built on the body of a Chevrolet “490” vehicle, so named because it cost $490 to buy one at its base value before fancy add-ons like headlights and electrical non-crank ignition. 
Yesterday I was reading the owner’s manual produced for the 490’s. Under the heading of “steering” (which tells you something about how new cars were at the time if the owner’s manual was telling you about steering), it had this great quote: “Steering is not a difficult task. Perfection comes from confidence, not from knowledge. Within a few minutes the novice will have learned just how much movement on the steering wheel is required to turn a corner…” That middle sentence stood out to me. “Perfection comes from confidence, not from knowledge.”
You could say that “confidence” is a synonym for “faith”. And we confess that our “perfection” before God comes from our faith, or our confidence in Christ. As Christians, we agree with the Chevrolet owner’s manual. Our perfection does not come from simple knowledge. Knowledge simply says that we know that Jesus lived, died, and perhaps even that He rose again. But that is not faith, not yet. Those things are not faith yet, because they lack the confidence inspiring application to us. To make these things faith, we must add “for you.” Jesus lived for you. Jesus died for you. Jesus rose for you. Those things give you confidence, and that confidence is where we see perfection arise in us through the faith in what Jesus did for us.
May you grow this week in terms of your knowledge, but may you grow even more in the confidence that perfects you through what Jesus Christ has done for you.