What Builds Confidence?

Confidence is a character trait that sets a person apart from others. Confidence has the potential for either commanding respect and admiration or eliciting contempt and resentment. Samson exhibited a degree of self-confidence that led him to believe he was invincible. Healthy confidence believes you are God’s creation set apart by God to serve for the good of others.

Samson exhibited confidence when he allowed his countrymen to bind him and hand him over to his enemies. God's word tells us the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he picked up the jawbone of a donkey and struck down a thousand men. Listen to his prideful self-centeredness and conceit: "With the jawbone of a donkey I have made donkeys out of them."

Psalm 101:5 issues this warning: "I will get rid of anyone who whispers evil things about anyone else. I will not tolerate anyone who is proud and arrogant.” However, whoever humbles himself before the Lord God will never be disappointed. I thank God and praise Him for that promise. 

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Christ gives us confidence in God. We can’t do anything by ourselves and so claim to produce it ourselves, but God gives us our ability.

~2 Corinthians 3:4-5 Beck – New Testament in the Language of Today

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Face Inner Struggles with Confidence

It's apparent that we bring to relationships values and habits acquired throughout our past. What come with us are inner strivings and conflicts that define us as unique human beings. What causes conflict is incompatibility between what we think and how we feel.

A young man left his family to find a job and enroll in college. Contending with the college enrollment system left him feeling lost and anxious. Embarrassed and too shy to seek help, he departed for home. Facing friends and family with failure was more acceptable to him than confronting the complexity of a system he didn’t understand, which to others seemed incompatible with his previous high academic performance.

Inner conflicts can play havoc with what you're actually capable of achieving. Yet self-confidence can increase to the point of overriding anxiety that previously told you to flee uncomfortable situations. However, focusing on God's presence in moments of anxiety will provide strength to face your inner struggles with confidence. 

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For the Lord will be your confidence and he will keep your foot from being caught.

~Proverbs 3:26 New American Standard Bible

Let us have confidence, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.

~Hebrews 4:16 Good News Bible

God gives me the strength to face anything.

~Philippians 4:13 Contemporary English Version

Through the Lens of Confidence: Transformation - Part 3

Some time ago I was talking with a woman in her late thirties who had just attended her twenty year high school class reunion. She related how exciting it was to renew contact with former classmates. Unexpectedly, the night of the class reunion brought some pleasant surprises. Her former classmates gave her affirmation after affirmation of how important a role model she had been for them.

Although the troubles and sorrows of life had diminished the confidence she once projected to others, she could sense it returning just being around these friends. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of prayer, gave her the courage to face her struggles and fight for a healthier existence.

That class reunion proved to be what psychologist Abraham Maslow called a peak experience, a high point in life that renews hope and faith in one's self. This woman could see how God was at work to help her change and move on to greater accomplishments in her life. It is God's desire for us to change, to mature, and to have hope and plans for a brighter future.