Confidence
Confidence from Above: Confidence is a state of mind in which a person has trust and faith and is unafraid of challenges. You won’t achieve much if your confidence is low. Confidence is critical to success, whether it’s in your personal life or professional career. What you believe is what you get. Thoughts of failure cause you to lose confidence, but successful people aren’t afraid to fail because they know that failure is just a part of life. They dust themselves off and press on to try again. Confident people are optimistic about their future and have a positive outlook. They are willing to take risks and try new things. So whatever your goals are in life, you need to have a confident attitude to succeed and more importantly you need to realize your confidence is nothing without faith! Faith and confidence in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the only way we can achieve anything that truly matters in this life. This is what makes all the difference! Confidence in your own abilities will only get you so far, but confidence and faith in the Almighty will humble you deeply and take you to places you never thought possible. So, no matter what you do or how you do it, make sure you are doing it for Him. Pray about everything and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and He will guide you every step of the way! “For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” — Proverbs 3:26. God will provide for your needs as long as you keep His commandments and honor Him in all things. He will sustain you in His promises if you trust and have faith in Him. The world will tell you to foster your own self-confidence apart from God, but that is merely chasing after the wind to fulfill your own desires. Remember you are nothing but dust and ashes apart from God. He has given us eternal life and the forgiveness of sins and we must never forget His mercy and grace in our lives. Confidence solely in our own abilities separated from God is vanity and delusion. The Lord will not honor or bless this attitude. Be confident in who you are in Christ and believe in His strength alone instead of relying on your own ability. “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” — Hebrews 13:6.
Commitment-Faith-Inspiration: Commitment refers to your willingness to go the extra mile and truly put forth your best effort in any endeavor whether big or small. It also refers to the trust you put into someone or something based on past experience or trust in the future. Ultimately, commitment means you have complete trust in the process and are all in to do the work. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith is believing in something you can’t see or experience and putting your hope and trust in God. Inspiration is the drive to do something that you are passionate about, regardless of whether other people believe in it or think it is practical or not. It is having the strength and willpower to do what you are called to do even when it gets difficult or there are no guarantees of success. These three elements contribute to being confident in life. This is especially the case when it comes to following your dreams and finding a purpose. Keep these things in mind when you begin to doubt yourself or feel a lack of confidence. A believer’s confidence comes from having faith in the promises of God’s Word. Trusting in the Lord enables us to persevere through our hardships and challenges and live victoriously through the circumstances of life.
Confidence in Hardship: Confidence is not only for when things are going good in life, but it is also necessary when you are going through tough times as well. When storms of difficulties come your way, remember that God has your back and will never leave you nor forsake you. You will face trials and tribulations in life, but to the believer who has committed their life to Christ, those trials are only temporary and will fade away quickly because the joy of the Lord is your strength. “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.” — Psalm 5:11. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” You either believe the Word or you don’t. The confident ones hold onto the promises of God and stay loyal to Him. The cowardly shrink at the first sight of hardship and blame God for all their troubles. The Apostles and early followers of Christ all faced hard lives and almost all met harsh ends. Peter (crucified upside down), Andrew (bound and tied on an X-shaped cross), Simon (sawed in half), James (arrested by King Herod and beheaded), Philip (crucified on a tall cross), Thomas (speared to death), Bartholomew (flayed alive and beheaded), Matthew (beheaded), Jude (hacked to death by an ax). Yet each of them knew what Jesus had promised and they were all confident to live a bold life preaching the gospel. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” — Matthew 5:10–12. Those who take up their cross and follow Jesus are not promised an easy life. “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” — 2 Timothy 3:12. However, those who are confident in His promises and faithful until the end will have their reward in the kingdom to come. “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” — Hebrews 10:35–36.
In Him,
Tim and Will