Confidence in Myself through Christ

Hebrews 10:35-36 says “Therefore 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 is promised.” There is a lot of debate in the Christian community about confidence. But Hebrews says very clearly not to throw away our confidence! So why the debate? I think it is because some have confused confidence with being arrogant. If our identity is in Christ, as it should be, then we will be humble, not arrogant. I think of it this way, Christ was an incredible leader. He was humble. But he also walked in confidence. If we look closely at this passage it says not to throw away our confidence, which has a great reward! It goes on to say that we need this for endurance. Or in other words, we need to know in ourselves that we will be successful! If we have the confidence that we will be successful then we will be. I have said before that Napoleon Hill said “What the mind can conceive and believe it will achieve.” If we look at anyone who is successful in any capacity, we will see that they saw in their mind that they were successful way before the world saw it. Do you see yourself as successful? Do you look in the mirror and see a winner? If you don’t then no one else will either. You have to see yourself as being successful. You have to believe it. Growing up I was told many times that God didn’t create no junk! And I know that is true. When God created man in the Garden of Eden, then he said for the first time it was VERY good (Genesis 1:31). So what can we do to have confidence? This morning I watched a video on GodTV via Roku. I watched an episode of “The Leon Show” This video had a new to me writer on it. Her name is Renee Swope. She has written a book called “A Confident Heart” which I plan on getting tomorrow and reading right away. She gave two excellent suggestions. One is to write a letter to myself. In this letter, I have to congratulate myself on reaching a goal or more than one goal. I have 3 main goals I’m going to put in it. One is reaching Crown Diamond in Max International. A second goal is becoming a black belt in Martial Arts. A third one is speaking at a TEDx event. These are some major goals for me. I do have smaller goals, but those goals are set up to reach the big goals. A second idea she gave is to write out what I’m good at. I can tell you now some things I’m good at. One, I’m good at talking to people in public confidently. Two, I’m good at learning new things and putting those lessons to work. Third, I’m good at writing. There are other things I’m good at. But those are three things just off the top of my head. What are you good at? Write it out. And then thank God for showing them to you. Being confident doesn’t mean you are arrogant. What is the difference? In confidence, you know within yourself that you can do what God has called you to do. But if you are arrogant, you well, rub it in everyone’s face. I am better than you. We all have come across people who are this way. And that is not the person I’m talking about being. I’m talking about the person who knows that he is good at something. If you know you are good at something, such as a doctor who knows what he is doing. it will be obvious to everyone he meets. He won’t have to say “look at me, I’m better than you.” Until next time…