Are you a confident person? The Bible tells us that we can be a confident person.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Ephesians 3: 12
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (jars of clay in NIV), that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 2Cor 4:7
Definition of Confident: to trust, trust in, to have confidence, to be bold, to be secure.
Our culture thrives on confidence and looks for every which way to teach us to be confident. Many times the messages we hear from the culture boils down to self-reliance and feeling good about ourselves and our achievements. While there could be some value to that kind of confidence, it doesn’t address our true nature and our true need. We are fragile, needy people. Paul called us, “jars of clay”. A jar of clay has great uses, but it is very fragile. Nowadays, we use jars of clay as colorful decoration pieces in our homes. In Biblical times jars of clay were grayish containers used to hold water or food. They were not decorative items. They had a very useful purpose, but they were fragile and not showy!!
In order for us to be truly confident people, we can’t rely on ourselves but on the one who chose us. Jesus called us and we accepted Him, so our relationship with Him gives us confidence. We can approach the throne of a holy God with confidence at any time of day or night. We have access to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, because of what Jesus has done for us. Our confidence should not be in our personality, our background, or past experiences. Our confidence should be based on our relationship with God the Father.
Our relationship with the Lord also gives us confidence in areas of our weakness. He will guide us through those times when we lack confidence. Thankfully, we are not left to ourselves to figure it out, but He has given us the Holy Spirit as the counselor and comforter to help us navigate through life. He also has given us instruction in the Bible to learn and to grow from, so we can become mature people.
As we grow in our confidence in the Lord, we depend less upon our own confidence. We realize that the old ways of doing life don’t work, and as a matter of fact they have caused great damage to ourselves and those around us. We also recognize our vulnerability as a person as to how quickly our emotions can change and take us to the pit of despair or the heights of anger or rage. We recognize that without the Lord we have the propensity to be destructive with our tongue. It is only in humbling ourselves and asking Him to help us that we show self-control in difficult situations and not lash out at people.
Sometimes people are afraid of seeing their true nature. If we don’t pay attention to our true nature, which is sinful, it will cause pride and arrogance in our hearts, which in turn affects our relationship with the Lord and others. As a result, in our relationship with the Lord, we feel entitled to all kinds of blessings. Our thinking is, we are special and we are loved!! Now, in our relationships with people, we begin to think that every time something goes wrong it’s the other people’s fault, or the other person is jealous of me because I am called and anointed!!
We are fragile human beings, and when we have accurate view of ourselves it keeps us humble before our God and before people. The accurate view of ourselves brings humility which gives us greater opportunity to get to know Him. Knowing Him builds our confidence because we recognize that the God of this universe invited us to be in relationship with Him. A healthy view of ourselves compels us to depend on Him. We desperately need to be changed by His love and we can’t forget who we are without Him!!