Posts Tagged ‘confidence’

You are Confident

Thursday, October 12th, 2017

you-are-confident

You are confident! If you believe what the Scriptures say about you—how Christ sees you and values you—you will be confident. That confidence is what gives you the ability to excel in whatever your life calling is.

Confidence is not the same as arrogance or pride. Jesus was humble and lifted other people up, while being fully confident in who He was. He wants us to know who we are and be confident to walk in what He created us to do.

If you are with other people and you are confident, you can resist peer pressure. When you are confident in who you are, you will not allow people to treat you badly. This is because you have dignity given to you by God that cannot be taken away. You can gently point out to the person who is acting sinfully towards you, that showing honor is the way that God has commanded us to treat each other.

Confidence will make you a better wife because once you know that you have value, it shows in your eyes. You are no longer needy, and husbands love that. It frees them, because they don’t feel an anvil of trying to do what only God can do for you, which is to understand you and love you unconditionally. Husbands are attracted to their wives when they are confident because they look more beautiful. Confidence is a state of mind.

People who lack confidence are droopy and don’t get as much done. Their attitude is also one of self-pity rather than confidence in who God created us to be.

We are commanded to be confident to draw near to God because He will hear us and answer us because He is a good Father:

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 NASB

beloved-she-art

We have confidence in the Lord, and for this reason, we can have confidence in what He says:

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him.” Jeremiah 17:7 NIV

We don’t have to be perfect to have confidence. Even when we make mistakes, we can ask for forgiveness and have a clean slate. God is at work in our lives, and He will conform us more and more into His image as we yield to Him:

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 NASB

We are all a work in progress, and we are told in Romans 8:1 that there is no condemnation for us, when we fail. God knows we are but dust, and He doesn’t expect out of us more than we can do. It’s only other people who put pressure on us to perform. Sadly a lot of that pressure comes from church-goers who expect everyone to never fail and never accidentally hurt anyone else with what they say.

confident

Instead of judging each other harshly, we should realize that everyone is a work in progress, and everyone who is truly saved is on a path towards greater holiness. But God does the work. We don’t have to strive and strive and strive and fall over, feeling like an utter failure.

People who are confident have strength of character. Others look to them when times are rough because they are a rock to others. We can be immovable in our confidence, because that confidence and strength comes from Christ! That is why you can be confident!

“Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13 NASB

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!

Confidence vs. Self-Esteem

Monday, September 17th, 2012

God commands us to have confidence over and over in Scripture. We are to be bold and courageous (Joshua 1:9), we are to walk boldly to the throne of God to receive help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16), and we are to reach out to the lost (Matthew 28: 19-20), which requires boldness. To have confidence is not sin. We derive our confidence from God.

Self-esteem is not the same as confidence. Self-esteem is thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think (Philippians 2:3). But humility and confidence are not opposites. People who are greatly used by God are BOTH humble and confident. They know who they are in Christ, and they boldly follow God and lead others closer to Christ.

When God commands us to walk boldly to His throne to receive help in time of need, He wants to grant us confidence so that we possess that confidence, and that confidence is OURS. The confidence that I have in Christ is MINE. It belongs to me because God gave it to me.

So many Christians (like this Beth Moore Basher) say that we’re not allowed to have confidence, because it’s God’s. Oh, really? Just because it came from God doesn’t mean it’s not given.

Most women think they are pieces of dirt. And because we think of ourselves as garbage, believing lies from the enemy, we accomplish nothing for Christ. Instead of splitting hairs about the word “confidence,” I would much rather tell a woman that she is dearly loved by Christ, who gave up His life for her. God created her for a purpose, and she needs to ask God what her gifts, talents, and life purpose is. After salvation, when God is in the process of transforming her, she becomes more and more beautiful. You can see it in her face. She becomes more and more like Christ.

And as she becomes like Christ, she can stand on the Word of God and not believe the lies from the enemy that are crippling. She then has deep confidence in God, and it’s HERS. The confidence belongs to HER, and it shines out of her face.

It’s not a sin to be confident. To be used by God full blast in your life, you must be bold as a lion. Yes, it comes from Christ, but it’s GIVEN to us. That confidence permeates every aspect of our lives, and we are used maximally for His kingdom.