Hi how are you all today? I am well and have had an okay week full of ups and downs. Most people’s lives are like that and I am just very glad that I have a relationship with God as He helps me through.
This week I want to look at a verse in 1 Corinthians 10:12 in the Message Bible. At the end of that verse it states:
Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
Those words cultivate God confidence really stood out to me as I was reading that passage last week. My question is what is God confidence and how do I cultivate it.
Let’s look at what confidence means first? In the Cambridge dictionary, it means the quality of being certain of your abilities or of having trust in people, plans or the future. When we think of confidence it is all about us but as the verse states above that type of self confidence is useless. Why? Because it depends on circumstances around us. If someone says something good about us, our confidence is good but if they say something bad, our confidence takes a hit.
As Christians, we should be God confident. Why? Because if we change the definition slightly, God confidence is the quality of being certain of Gods abilities. This sounds more like where we want to be as Gods abilities never change no matter what happens. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
So then how do we cultivate that God confidence in our lives. That quality of being certain of His abilities.
Well first we have to know what Gods abilities are and they can only be found by reading the Word of God or hearing someone teach or preach the Word of God.
Second we have to have a revelation or a deep knowing of that quality. We can read in our Bible that God is good all the time but it won’t do us much good if we only read it but don’t know it without a doubt.
David could only defeat the giant Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 because he spent time with God finding out Who God was and experiencing Him. We can tell all of that by the words he spoke first in verses 34-37 which state:
37 David said, “I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. Lion or bear, it made no difference—I killed it. And I’ll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”
Cultivating God confidence first starts with small experiences of Gods goodness and provision and then when bigger obstacles come then those small experiences of Gods goodness and provision will be our markers just like with David above.
Then in verse 45-47 David speaks God confident words to the giant:
David answered, “You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I’m about to kill you, cut off your head, and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine buddies to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there’s an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn’t save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God—he’s handing you to us on a platter!”
This is the same for us in cultivating God confidence. First read and know the Word of God. Put it into practice when small obstacles come your way. Then you will grow in that confidence as you see God working. When bigger obstacles come you already have the God confidence so remind yourself of that and use the same principles you used when overcoming those small obstacles.
My encouragement for you today is you can do it with God.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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