Confidence: the feeling or belief that one can have faith in and rely on someone.
This Sunday I realised that I am blessed with a level of confidence that not many people are lucky enough to have. I have great amounts of confidence in my friends and family, I know they'll never let me down or leave me and having confidence in their loyalty to me is something I take for granted. I have confidence in myself, in the way I present myself, in the thoughts I have, in the kind of person I am. I am fortunate enough to be able to look at myself in the mirror most days and be proud of the person I am, not many people are lucky enough that they have that level of confidence in themselves. I have confidence in my God, in His existence, in His love for me, in His eternal commitment to me. Not many people are fortunate enough to faith faith in someone who will never let them down and will never leave them.
So what I would like to do in this blog post is tell you a few things that you absolutely can and should have confidence in!
I don't know what kind of friends or family you have, and I won't patronise those who aren't as lucky as me by saying they definitely care for you and are loyal to you. But what I will tell you, is that Jesus Christ is a friend to everyone. He is a friend to you! He is a father that will never let you down, he is a mother that will never stop loving you, he is the friend you can turn to no matter what. He is unconditionally a friend that will never leave you and a family member that you can have confidence in!
You can have confidence in yourself! If you strive every day to be the best person you can be, if you focus on God and try to live in his image, you can have faith in you. As long as you are trying to be, you are a good person! Have confidence in the decisions you make because God is guiding you. I find my strength and confidence in God, and if you put your faith in him and follow him, you can also have confidence in yourself! In Matthew 16:5-8, Jesus cautions His disciples, "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees", He is trying to look out for them. But, the disciples lack self-confidence, they hear Jesus warn them and assume they've done something wrong, they doubt themselves and their confidence plummets. What the disciples fail to realise is that, God's character is one of compassion and love and joy, He was not condemning them or putting them down, that is however, often the nature of human beings. And the reason this human trait of judgement thrives is because we doubt ourselves and let others put us down. If the disciples had confidence in themselves; if they knew that with God at the centre of their lives, they were on the right path: then they would know that Jesus wasn't judging them or criticising them because they did their best and it is not Jesus nature to condemn. They would have been able to consider his caution as he had intended it, as a warning from a place of compassion and love. When you have faith in Christ and a relationship with Him, you live every day trying to be the best you can. With this knowledge, you can have renewed confidence in yourself and the choices you make and the things you do. Walking with Christ means you have no reason for self-doubt, you can have faith in yourself, and that is a powerful gift from Christ to you. Let God give you confidence in yourself!
God exists! God loves you! God will never leave you! God has got you and he will not let you fail! You can have faith and confidence in God and He will never let you down. In Matthew 14:29-31, one of Jesus' disciples has the incredible opportunity to walk on water with Jesus. Peter had confidence in God at first, but he became afraid and his faith faltered. But even then, in his moment of doubt, Jesus did not let Peter fall. God has got you! And whether you need his help to take a great leap of faith, or to complete a small day-to-day task, He is always there for you. Put your confidence in Him, if your faith falters, He will catch you, but if you have the strength of faith in Him that I am trying to encourage in you, you can walk on the water beside him in confidence. Jesus has got you, you will not fall or fail, so put your faith and confidence in Him.
For a long time, I have taken my confidence in these things for granted. But now I realise how precious these things are! These confidences are the things that keep me smiling everyday, they are the reason I am brave enough to strive for what I believe God wants me to do, they keep me joyous. And I hope you can learn to have these confidences too, I know it's not easy for everyone to do this, especially in a world that makes you doubt and envy. In a world where having confidence is misconceived as vanity, self-righteousness, and pride, self-confidence can have negative connotations in our communities. And having faith in a God is valued by few people, and mocked or criticised by many. But I'm telling you that you can and should have confidence in your God and in yourself! You are a good person and you can and should be proud of that quality and of your God who made you this way! God loves you and you can have great faith in this fact!