God Confidence

Do you or your kids deal with confidence issues? It’s safe to assume that most likely someone under your roof (if not everyone there) desires to walk with more confidence and fewer feelings of inadequacy. Let’s consider what the word confidence really means and how we can encourage our family members and ourselves to walk with greater confidence in life.

Confidence means to have a firm belief or trust. The root word, fidere, is the same root we find in the word fidelity, meaning faithful or faith. To have confidence, then, means to have a strong trust or faith in something or someone. Self-confidence is obviously trusting in self. Confidence in people or circumstances can be shaky, but confidence in God puts us on a firm foundation! The Bible reminds us continually that God is a rock and a refuge and worthy of our trust.

Consider the following passages from the Bible that specifically talk about confidence:

For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.—David (Psalm 71:5)

Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared. Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.—Solomon (Proverbs 3:25 – 27)

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.—Solomon (Proverbs 14:26 – 27)

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.—Jeremiah (Jeremiah 17:7)

Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. —Paul (2 Corinthians 3:4,5)

Each of these passages offers a powerful reminder that we experience confidence when we place our trust in the Lord. A God confidence can help us take that first step forward. A God confidence can help break the chains of fear which so easily hold us back. When our confidence rests in him we can walk forward knowing we are loved and not alone. As Thomas Merton said, “I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
When David fought Goliath, his confidence wasn’t in his slingshot and stones; it was in the Lord. When Gideon fought against a vast army, his confidence wasn’t in his little army of three hundred men; it was in the Lord. When Esther went before the king to plead for her people, her confidence wasn’t in her own power of persuasion; it was in the Lord’s power to save her life and the life of her people.
Let’s help our kids remember that as we put our confidence in God, we can stand tall and walk confidently knowing the God of all creation is able to be our help, hope and strength in time of need.