“God . . will fulfill his purpose for me.” Psalm 57:2 NLT
Confidence enables you to navigate among realities you know and possibilities you envision.
My thoughts and comments today are about “unshakable confidence.”
You were meant to live confident and courageous; God made you that way. Life is harder when confidence is lacking. Confidence contributes to a healthy personality, an essential for sound decisions, a necessity for relationships, empowers personal achievement, and a major factor in practical aspects of everyday life. You were not meant to live without confidence. Confidence enables you to navigate among the realities you know and the possibilities you envision. The Bible says, “In quietness and confidence is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15 NLT.
But where does confidence come from? I think the struggle to face every day bravely is complicated when people lack or lose confidence. Most do not know where to find it again. The source of unshakable confidence does not rest on the tenuous foundation of others’ opinions of you. Nor is lasting confidence found internally. Nor is it the cumulative result of successes.
You had it as a child. Along the way, the opinions and doubts of others create self-doubt, and the bumps and bruises of experience quietly erode child-like confidence. Life isn’t always easy. Dealing with obstacles and difficulties takes its toll. And you’ll meet confidence spoilers, purveyors of their own negativism that involuntarily replays the internal soundtrack of doubts you try to hide even from yourself.
The spiritual fallenness common to our individual history is the record of how and when we fell short of expectations – God’s, our own, and others’. Whatever self-confidence you thought you had takes a hit and self-doubt rushes into the vacuum. And let’s admit it; some things that parade as self-confidence are really just false bravado or the naiveté of a life that’s not yet been tested sufficiently.
It may seem an over-simplification but confidence comes from a Source greater than yourself and is strengthened by Godly purpose. David faced giants and armies on battlefields, an insecure king jealous and angry enough to kill him, marauding Philistines, his companions speaking of stoning him, and don’t forget his own monumental failures. Any of those would be confidence destroyers.
When David was running from King Saul, living in caves with a desperate lot of refugees and misfits, he wrote a song, “I cry out to God who will fulfill His purpose for me . . My God will send forth His unfailing love and faithfulness.” Psalm 57:2-3 NLT. Did you notice David’s professed confidence? “God will fulfill His purpose for me.” In God and purpose you find confidence that is life sustaining.
Commit yourself wholeheartedly to God; ask God for His purpose in your life. That may not be dramatic and bold. His purpose may be someone you are to become – a better person, spouse, parent, vibrant Christ-follower, diligent worker, faithful friend – as much as something you are to do. “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 was promised.” Hebrews 10:35-26 NAS. Confidence comes from doing the will of God with anticipation of His provision and pleasure.
My prayer for you today is that you live with a boldness of obedience to God.