I come from a line of frugal, do it yourself, ‘where there is a will there is a way’ kind of people. It’s a legacy I appreciate as it has served me well. But like with all good things, there can be an edge to it. An edge that says, ‘I’ve got to take care of this’. In reality there is nothing wrong with having a get it done kind of attitude, but it turns into self-reliance and self-sufficiency God is edged out of the picture and we set ourselves up in an illusion.
We hear of wars and rumors of wars. We hear of Iran testing missiles. We hear of doom about our financial stability. We hear of scandal. We hear of socialism. We hear of conservatism. We hear of racism. We hear of devestation. We hear of things that shake our world such as a diagnosis of defeat, of cancer, or of death.
The illusion I spoke of? It gets revealed when we get hit with news that no amount of will or determination or do it yourselfness can begin to improve.
So what then? Do we try harder? Do we do more? Do we deny the circumstances?
Do we find our trust in God wavering?
It’s situations like these that reveal exactly whether we truly mean the words: ‘I trust in you, God’.
Have I merely given lip service to my God? Do I even understand what it means to trust Him? There was a time in my life that I underlined or circled every time the word trust was used in the book of Psalms. I needed to see just how important trust was in the lives of believers and how important it is to God. I don’t want to give lip service to my God, He means too much to me to do that and yet….sometimes I do.
This is the deal….
Confidence is one of those words whose definition gets infused with our humanness and can be translated into arrogance, or self-reliance, and maintaining control with God as our back-up.
Holy confidence, however, is putting God between us and our circumstance. Let me restate that. Holy confidence is not blindly saying that I believe God will take care of it. Holy confidence is putting God between us and our circumstance and seeing him.
It’s seeing his strength. It’s seeing his goodness. It’s seeing his provision. It’s seeing his righteousness. It’s seeing his power. It’s seeing his healing. It’s seeing his mercy. It’s seeing his freedom.
It seeing all these things first and then seeing your circumstance. I am awed that when I focus on my God’s attributes and care and concern for me, my circumstances seem small because my God seems big. But when I focus on an overwhelming circumstance God seems small. And my trust wavers.
It’s not me and God working out a problem. It’s me behind God. God behind my circumstance. My circumstance cannot overwhelm me because it has to go through God first. I cannot affect the outcome of my circumstance because I have to go through God first. When I step out into self-confidence — two things happen to me. An illusion is created and I take responsibility for bearing the burden of my circumstance.
Holy Confidence is placing God between you and your circumstance. Keep your eyes focused on him. Look at your circumstance through his strength and not your own. Look to him for your every breath and move. He never fails and is faithful.