Confidence is Key
Confidence:
a. a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities.b. the state of feeling certain about the truth of something.c. the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.
I found all three of these definitions under the word “Confidence”on google. And I must say…I find these definitions extremely interesting. How do you recognize confidence in someone? Is it the way they carry themselves? Is it the way they dress? Is it the way they carry a conversation? Is it by the choices they make in their life? Is it their “I don’t care what anyone thinks” mentality?
I think we often can visualize two types of confident people:
confidently humble
and
confidently arrogant
I certainly don’t have all of the answers here, but I would love to dive into this a bit. Let’s dissect this, shall we…
“a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities.”
I think this definition points to one thing… your uniqueness. If you believe that you are just another replica of a stereotype or a label… you are highly under estimating the complexity within you. Are you the only one who can do ___ or say ___? No, most likely not. Often times, when I think of God creating me I think of those lottery ball machines. The ones that have a bunch of numbers and they spit out a few random ones for the winning combination. Oh - 7, this one is gonna be feisty. 22- this one is gonna be goofy. For some silly reason- that’s what I picture…then God says… “yep, this one will be called Kaylee.” But this is most definitely not how it goes.
It sounds so cliche, but when people say that God made you different from everyone else… I believe it. God has given you a unique combination of gifts, abilities, passions, desires, likes/dislikes that only you have. You have a personality that sheds light on humor, emotion, and intellect that is unique. It truly blows my mind to learn about how complex the human body is. It is immaculate. TRULY. There are things about our brain- capacities that we aren’t even able to understand. I know that if God can make a universe such as ours, then I know that all of the intentional building blocks of who you are are purposeful, powerful, and beautiful in His sight. And they should be regarded as such in your sight! How could we not be appreciative of his detailed hand over our creation?
“the state of feeling certain about the truth of something.”
Maybe you are in that season of “the grass is always greener somewhere else” but I am here to tell you that your uniqueness is not just a perk, it is essential to God’s purpose for you. Your path is paved by the gifts God has given you and who He has created you to be.
Another part of confidence is knowing the truth and standing firm in it. People who have no truth speaking into them are about as hollow and insecure as can be. This creates an arrogant confidence because they are overcompensating for their loss of identity. As Christians, we have the opportunity to have confidence in these three key things:
1. Who God is
2. His love for us
3. His purpose in us
THIS IS TRUTH. THIS BREATHES CONFIDENCE.
“the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.”
When someone has an arrogant confidence this can also lead to symptoms of needing everyone to like them or approve of them. Other symptoms can be needing to have control over everything. These two symptoms in particular can be explained away in this final definition of confidence. When we put our faith and trust in God, we are declaring that we don’t actually have control and that He is the Lord over our life. You can walk around humbly confident because you have a Heavenly Father who affirms your identity and remains faithful to you in your life. There is no one else who could possibly ever fill this void in your life. Although, many people try.
Imagine you find a big package at your doorstep, but you don’t remember ordering anything. You open it up and there are so many pieces, shapes, tools, etc. You might be thinking, “what is all of this for?” There is a phone number on the box for Customer Service and a website to go to for directions. But being stubborn, you decide to wing it and try to put all of these pieces together on your own. The problem is that you don’t even know what you are building. You don’t know the end goal. When parts are put together for a mistaken purpose, they usually end up breaking or becoming unreliable. Sometimes they may even become useless.
This is just like who we are. God has all the parts, potential, and purpose in that box for you. But without going to Him - “the Customer support line” then we don’t have a someone to rely on. We don’t have someone there to guide us. When we don’t meditate on the Word of God (the directions), we don’t have a way to put all of our pieces to use. We don’t have a way to utilize all of the parts of ourselves. We miss out on the end goal of our lives because we wanted to try putting it together ourselves. Then we end up saying.. “well, this doesn't make sense and I don’t understand why…” WELL DUH. Right?
To be fair, I think we all can fall into this more than we would like to admit. I know I can. But word to the wise, avoid this way of life at all cost. Strive for the right kind of confidence. The kind that doesn’t look to self but looks to Him.
