Confidence

There is nothing more tragic than a man who has all the potential in the world but is unwilling to make that potential become a reality. They stop learning, building, and growing and start withering, shriveling, and dying. The man will show flashes of potential and growth and then show no motivation and just plateau in a place of blessing. This man will eat the fruits of labors past but is too satisfied to work for the labor of the future.

This man was me.

I was too satisfied with who I was and began to coast. I coasted in my workplace, my drive began to slow more into a stroll. My relationship with God became more like an acquaintance. God desired to commune with me when I was satisfied with a 30-minute visitation just to tell Him what I wanted to see. 

The catastrophe doesn’t lie in the feeling of being comfortable, it’s being so comfortable you’re not willing to go after what God has for you. You become more confident in your ability and don’t realize that your inability is why God uses you. In this holiday season, we notice a thing called seasonal depression. Every time around this year, I notice myself starting to slack off with everything I do, but I want to encourage everyone who reads this. God has something for you and wants you to be confident…but that confidence lies in Him! In this time don’t slack off because it’s in this time that when we strive after God we begin to grow again! 

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“If we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.” Edward R. Murrow. 

The confidence in fear is not merely the look on the outside but rises from beneath… from the inside of every one of us. It’s an instinct that every creature was bestowed on from the very beginning of time. Empire after empire showed how fear can subdue or cripple a once strong nation. Today it reigns true fear has crippled this nation to a portion where we have focused solely on things that don’t matter. We are trying to fight division with division which as Abraham Lincoln said, “A nation divided can not stand.” We are seeing churches being burned and pastors being arrested in Canada. As a christain that should have us very fearful, but it doesn’t.

It should shock us that even in the fear churches are growing at an all-time high, but it doesn’t. Why?

We don’t put our confidence in ourselves during fear, we put it in something rock solid, which is Jesus Christ. 

Even when we are fearful we can take a stand because of the confidence we have placed in God.

Those who dwell on the fear are unwise. Aaron Bounds, the pastor of The Anchor Church in Zanesville, OH, said, “Fear always leads to deception.” 

Another great example of that is a quote from a very famous green person named Yoda who said, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

In this time of fear I challenge you to do what the Bible says and love people because 1 John 4:18 KJV says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

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We are consistently bombarded with the fallacies and misconceptions that real men don’t exist anymore. Honestly, from the way it looks in our culture that statement is very well true, well semi-true.

Any man can be a real man no matter who he is, but all you hear about is the ones who have left their wives now single and with a child. That is not a real man.

Real men exhibit confidence that occurs from the inside out. True confidence for a man relies all on who he is in God. No confidence in God will equal your family’s demise.

Confidence in God will carry over into your decision making. You will feel more at peace with the tough decisions. In the most difficult situations follow peace.

The last bit of confidence is confidence in yourself. Knowing that your confidence has been put into Christ will allow you to be more confident in who you are. Confidence is a full circle that consistently edifies you.

Be a man today and be confident in who God has made you to be!

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Abraham Lincoln said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” That statement reigns true today as we watch our country divide itself over politics. This statement is also true in the home. You cannot have a strong family if you are divided against yourself.

Being divided can come in a multitude of ways. Media has slowly divided families from the core of what a family needs, Communication.

We have gone away from personal communication to where we are more comfortable over devices than actual face to face interactions.

Why have we done this?

We have lost our confidence in our homes. The same confidence that works from the inside out will show itself in the home. Our confidence in Christ will make the home stronger. I have found that when we become closer to God we begin to become closer and more open to our family.

Put the phones down get closer to God and see how much more you communicate.

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Confidence is one of the most attractive and sought after things in this world, but like most things worth having it comes at a price. Confidence is not something you are born with or something that is taught, but it’s something that you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are not wavering in who you are and what you believe.

The cost of confidence is not material. You can’t just go to the store and buy confidence nor should you pay someone to teach you true confidence. True confidence doesn’t rely on things money can buy it relies on how you feel about yourself.

Confidence like anything worth having will cost you emotionally. Not everyone is going to like how confident you are and how much you change because of it.

That’s okay.

True confidence is looking at the ones who walked away and still keeping your head up because you know that you haven’t moved in your beliefs.

Be careful not to walk over the fine line of arrogance and confidence. Arrogance is defined by overbearing pride or offensive display of self-importance. While confidence is defined as an assurance that you feel towards someone or something. The key to true confidence is don’t go around explaining how confident you are. True confidence through your actions not through words.

True confidence is where no matter who walks away and who mistakes you as arrogant you can still stand because you know that you are confident in who God has made you in to be. So lift you’re head high and no matter the cost stay confident in who you are.

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Have you ever wondered how some people can be so certain in an uncertain time. It’s because they have put their confidence in something. Confidence is not something that you portray, but something that works from the inside out. Those people are walking around with true confidence, but how?

Confidence by definition is the firm trust in someone or something. Those people who walk around still confident are the ones who have an unwavering trust in God and themselves. They know no matter what comes their way it will be alright.

In this world we can find ourselves being confident in uncertain places. We can build our confident houses on the sands of media waiting for the house to be taken out by a wave of negativity.

True confidence is what we should strive for in our everyday lives. This form of confidence will continue to work from the inside of us to make us better on the outside.

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