CONFIDENCE IN HIM

I believe it is impossible to achieve great things without confidence. God will do little things in us that seem large, but to move into the impossible, to move into the greatness of God, we have to come into confidence.

What is confidence? Confidence means assurance, hope for refuge, to prevail by persuasion. The problem is, with any strong character, no matter how spiritual we are, others can persuade us if we lack confidence, in spite of the fact we do love God. Any strong willed can have influence over us because we are lacking confidence. For instance, if I have a calling in God or I have a revelation and I believe that it is of God, and a strong man or woman comes who has his or her strong belief and disagrees with me, I am going to become a failure in my eyes. I will think what God has spoken is impossible because I lack confidence in the atmosphere of disagreement. The strength of the persuasion of those who come against my belief will cause me to become rootless. A double minded man is rootless, unstable which means being inconsistent without roots.

Confidence is a root. It does not come because you are gifted. Sometimes when God wants to use our gifts, we hide them like talents and we do not want to give them out. We do not have confidence in our ability or confidence in the Master who gave us the gifts. We lack confidence in our ability and in the Master; therefore, we will have no increase of greatness. God wants to bring forth greatness. He is going to strip both you and I from our confidence. That is what He did with Paul, and out of “the desired one” He made “ a little one”. He stripped Him. Paul was educated, a good disciple of the law and so confident in flesh that he persecuted the Christians. What did he say after God changed him? “I have no confidence in the flesh.”

The first thing you and I are going to experience is the stripping away who we think we are. There is a difference between confidence and ability. Some of us have confidence in our worship, in our preaching or in the things we do, but we have no confidence in Christ. Often we have confidence in that which makes our flesh strong, and we think we can put on strength. God strips us because He wants to give us real confidence.

How does God do that? What did Paul say, in Philippians 3:7 “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” Remember it says to lose things is to gain life. When our confidence is lost, we can press toward the high calling of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12)

Psalm 118:8 says, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” That kind of confidence and trust is two things. Before we can ever attain confidence, we have to learn how to trust. God’s people are very scared to trust any one, and although we have developed a confidence and strength in what God can do, trust is something that makes us vulnerable. For me to have confidence in God, I have to trust Him who gives me confidence.

How do you fine that trust? It says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of confidence.” Fear plays a big part in the process. It is not a fear that we are afraid of the devil, but it is a fear that will produce an effect. We cannot have confidence without respect, and that is why we as wives need to respect our husbands, because without respect, we cannot have confidence our spouse. We have to come to a place where we see what God can do through a man or a woman so that I can confidence in others.

In His Love,
      Sigi

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