Do you struggle to have the confidence needed to face what’s in front of you?
As we face each day, it is so easy for our confidence to crumble if it isn’t grounded in Christ.
Jeremiah 1:7-8 gives us the remedy for not only finding but also keeping our confidence —“The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.”
Confidence cannot come from your own strength—it must come from God. It cannot be based on your own security, but your security in Him. He will fight for you. Your confidence comes from your relationship with Christ. “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). When you feel weak, He is strong. Because Christ lives in you, you have strength beyond your own power, wisdom above your own knowledge, and riches far greater than jewels. So, when life seems to be closing in from every angle, God tells you to look up, raise your eyes, and look to Him who will rescue you from your enemies (Psalm 25:15).
In Judges 6-8, we meet Gideon, the youngest of his siblings from the least of families. He was asked to take on a God-size task when the angel of the Lord came to him and wanted to use him to overthrow the Midianites. Before Gideon knew what God was calling him to do, the angel said, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior” (Judges 6:12).
Really? Just a few minutes prior, Gideon was performing his regular duties of beating the wheat in the winepress. God took Gideon from being a farmer to a fearless warrior. Even though Gideon was slow to believe, once convinced of God’s power, he was a loyal follower who obeyed the Lord’s instruction. His confidence came from the Lord as he went out to battle.
Just as God accomplished great things through Gideon, He can accomplish great things through you, too. If only you could embrace your weakness as His strength and follow the Lord’s guidance and trust in the promise of His confidence—not yours. When you put your security in God and His revealed Word, your life will take on a new stability, focus, and humble confidence. Put no confidence in your flesh but have every confidence in the God who made you, called you, saved you, and keeps you.
Be like Peter and John in the New Testament. Reflect a confidence that’s built by exercising your spiritual muscles in the presence of the Lord!
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
So, today, step out in the confidence that comes from being in the presence of God through your relationship with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Being with Jesus changes everything!
It allows you to do things that seem impossible, go where He calls you, and show kindness to those who may be difficult, all the while being held up by His confidence and not your own.
Trust Him to do all He calls you to and follow with a strength that believes “He can do far more above and beyond what you could ever think or or imagine, according to the power that works with in you” (Ephesians 3:20).
Journeying with Him,
Jessie