The Right Kind of Confidence

(preached at The Church @ Swan Mead on 21/03/10)

The Right Kind of Confidence

The dictionary definition of confidence is: -feeling of trust in person/thing -belief in own abilities

"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right" (Henry Ford)
"Confidence is either a petty pride or the realisation of our duty and priveledge as God's children" (Phillips Brooks)

Over the past few years one of the biggest changes in my life has been that I have grown in confidence.


Where does confidence come from?

money? friends/family? abilities? qualifications? dreams/ambitions? strength? possessions?

At some point all of these things will fail us.

1 Corinthians 10:12 (Message)
Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

Around the edge of a £2 coin are the words "standing on the shoulders of giants". With God on our side we are standing on the shoulders of the biggest giant there ever was and ever will be! No matter what comes up in our lives it can never get too big for our God!!

Ephesians 3 talks about having freedom and confidence to approach God, because of what was accomplished through Christ.

Why does God give us confidence?

Psalm 18:16
He reached down from on high and took hold of me....

God stoops down to us because he is great (on high)! Why? because he wants us to be great too! We are made in his image and we are meant to aspire to be like him.

God sent his own Son to earth to die on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice for everything we ever have and ever will do wrong. He took our punishment so we could once again be in relationship with the God who created the Heavens and the Earth. He created us, he loves us and he wants the best for us.

What do we do with it?

Most of the time - we ignore it, deny it and waste it. Why? because we have gone back to the other sources, we have put our faith in other things that will not last and usually this is in the form of our own strength. Ever found yourself thinking "I can't cope with this, who am I that I should be successful?"

With God-confidence we can do anything!

Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

This is confidence to find help in God.

John 10:10
I have come that you may have life to the full.

This is confidence to enjoy life!

And of course this will give us the confidence to do what God asks of us...

Acts 4:31
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak God's word with fearless confidence.

This is confidence to tell others.

2 Corinthians 3:4-6 tells us that we have such confidence to make us competant ministers of a new covenant.

This is confidence in our actions towards and on behalf of others.

Therefore we can speak and act with confidence!

Person profile:

Joan of Arc was born on January 6 1914 in Domremy. She was the youngest of 5 and was taught the Catholic religion throughout her life by her mother. From childhood she was known for her obedience, kindness, generosity etc.
At the age of 13 she began to hear from God, telling her to "go into France" and basically save them from the English. This lasted for 5 years, then Joan received permission to go to the Dauphin Charles. She was accepted by a church council and began to lead the Dauphin's army. Within days the city was freed. In 10 days she freed the Loire Valley. Within a few months Charles was crowned King of France.
Then Charles stopped trusting Joan...
She confidently told him God was giving her another year to do his will but Charles took no notice of her. In May 1430 Joan was captured - fulfilling her 'year' prophecy. In November she was handed over to the English who wanted to condomn Joan as a witch and heretic. She was taken through court proceedings that have been reported as biased in many ways against her.

She was eventually burnt at the stake, during which she asked for a cross to be held in front of her so that it was the last thing she saw.
25 years later the trial was declared null and void.

I think it's safe to say that Joan of Arc had confidence and it's pretty obvious where she got it!


Hebrews 10:35
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

Obstacles to confidence

FEAR!
1 John 4:16-18
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

God's love is perfect and it overcomes the fear that holds us back in our confidence.

Remember: it's not about what you can do, it's about whether you allow God to do everything He can do in your life.

First proper post! :)

Well I have a bit more time now. :)
Ok so I decided to start a blog for a couple of reasons:
1. I enjoy writing diary-type things
2. A few people have shown an interest in getting hold of my preach notes/tapes so this is a good opportunity to publish them in some way

So....welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy :)

Testing, testing...

Hi,

Just thought I would give this whole blog thing a quick test before I pop to the shops :)
Will write nproperly later...

Bye :)