Are You Confident?

Where does confidence come from? What is it about someone or some group of people that allows them to stand up in front of a group of people and speak or sing or present or lead? What is it about certain people that allows them to command a room upon entry? What is it about certain indiviuals that causes others to get quiet when they speak? Allow me to suggest to you that it's perhaps not only what you think.

If you're anything like me then you probably ran down a list of qualities and characteristics of someone who's confident. Outgoing, knowledgeable, wise, extroverted, studied, dynamic, smart, etc. These of course are all of the typical traits that one would look for or seek out when attempting to gain confidence and they really do make sense. When you want to be more confident on a particular topic, you study it. When you want to gain confidence in a particular area, you practice and become more adept. If you're confident you are generally okay with being in the lime light. You probably don't shy away from being the center of attention. You can handle yourself, you've prepared, you've got this.

While I don't disagree with any of these key chracteristics, I want to suggest that there is another, often untapped source of confidence. There is a deep seated confidence that can only come from the blessing of God on your life. The Scripture is packed full of verses that reflect this idea.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight."

Philippians 1:6 says, "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."

Acts 1:8 says, "but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

You see, I think sometimes we get confused with what self-confidence is all about. For the Christ follower, self-confidence is really all about God-confidence because as believers we are called to empty ourselves. Whatever level of confidence I possess shouldn't be about my own abilities or smarts or know-how or experience. The only reason I have any of those things in the first place is because of what God has allowed me to experience.

Too often we allow ourselves to get in the way of what God is trying to accomplish. We convince ourselves that we can't, we don't know how, we're unsure, we're afraid of failure, we've never done that before, we've never led at that level, we've never presented in front of that many people. Here's the good news, God doesn't need your experience. God doesn't need your expertise to accomplish what He wants to accomplish with you and through you. Get out of the way and allow God to do what needs to be done in your life and with your life.

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