How I believe God has created us to be confident.

I have often struggled with the idea of being confident.  I believe that this has stemmed from the fact that I have never been sure if exactly how God calls me to be so.  I have been concerned that if I am confident in ways which are not in line with God's ways that I may fall into a trap of trying to do things my way, pursuing only the things that to want to pursue, and dishonoring Him in the process.  I am very thankful because I feel like tonight God used Tony Dungy's book "Uncommon" (chapter 12 - Powerful Thoughts) to gain a clearer picture of how and why God calls me to be confident.  

To start, the self-fulfilling prophecy does seem to have merit.  When you look at how humans usually achieve success, it does seem that it usually occurs when we do our part through believing that we can accomplish the task at hand.  And the opposite also holds true in that it seems that humans who doubt their ability to achieve the task at hand get in their own way and struggle to accomplish it.  If you examine human studies, and human history in general, these facts consistently hold true.  When examining these facts, it appears very evident that this is how God created us.  His Word is clear that He calls us to always do our best in everything for His glory (Colossians 3:23), and human research shows that it appears that the way He created us to do this is to truly believe that we can/will accomplish the task at hand.  This involves confidence through belief and visualization.  The people who are successful at sport and other endeavors are the ones who do these things, therefore I believe that it is wise to conclude that this is how God created us to be in order to do our best in everything that we do - again, all for His glory alone, not our own.

With this said, that does not mean we are to simply pursue any and all endeavors that we want and say that it will happen if we truly believe and see ourselves accomplishing it.  Their is common sense involved too.  It is important to only pursue those things which are righteous, and hopefully one has sought God for whether or not that is something that He has called you to and/or given you His blessing to pursue.  At the same time it is also important to surrender all goals and dreams to the Lord.  It is important to believe, expect and visualize success in order to be successful, however; it is also important to surrender all results to God and surrender those results to Him for His glory.

God calls us to believe and see ourselves accomplishing the tasks we pursue, for this is how He created us to do our best in things.  It is important however to make sure that we are doing them for His glory alone, and that we are surrendering to Him the results, and accepting and thankful for these results realizing that we exist for His glory and that His ways are always best.

Don't let satan deceive you - the ways he makes you think evil thoughts are actually you.

The following are ideas from John Eldrige's "Wild at Heart" (chapter 9).  I have often felt extremely frustrated and disgusted at myself when sinful thoughts or ideas have come into my mind.  This chapter has helped me gain a new understanding of how Satan works to try and get us frustrated and down on ourselves.  He does this to try and handicap us in our attempt to live our lives for the Lord.  He wants us to get down on ourselves, think that we are not worthy and that we are worthless failures who cannot accomplish anything for the Kingdom of God.  He does this to people who have chosen to live for Jesus.  When people are not a threat to Satan, the message he sends them is, "You are doing fine in your walk".  However, for those who are doing work to further the Kingdom of God, the devil will send all kinds of messages to deceive and frustrate you into believing that you are worthless and a failure.  For this reason it is so important to be in constant communication with God, seeking Him and continually building upon your relationship with Him.  This way, it will help you stay in tune with the messages which are from Him, and those which are not from Him.

An example of how Satan works is through sinful thoughts.  He will constantly throw sinful thoughts at people striving to live for God.  He places these thoughts into your head in an attempt to make you believe that these thoughts are your own.  The truth is they are not your's.  This would be the same as if someone told you a lie about yourself.  You would be an absolute fool to believe that the lie is true simply because someone said it.  Well the same is true when Satan does this.  The truth is that the Bible teaches that when a person accepts Christ, He "puts a new heart and a new spirit in you".  Because Christ lives in you sinful thoughts and actions are not of you.  God would not allow that to be a part of the person He dwells within.  Those thoughts are from the sinful nature and most often are the result of Satan putting them in your mind.  Satan will do anything to frustrate you, your walk and the work that you are doing for God's Kingdom.

I must be aware of the fact that these attacks are always present in the life of a Christian, and I must not allow them to frustrate me.  They are not true, they are not from me, they are to be resisted and ignored.  I must rely on God's strength to ignore and resist and I must do this with the confident attitude of a warrior.
This is not to say that I don't have specific areas of weakness in my life, but even with these Satan will attack those weaknesses with sinful thoughts.  I am at war, and always will be.  But I want to relish in relying on God's strength to be a warrior for Him, and fight against the devil's schemes.

I am so thankful for the peace of knowing that these sinful thoughts are not of me and that they should therefore be dismissed and ignored.  The only attention they deserve is to remind myself how sinful they are, and of the fact that I am so thankful that they are not of me and that there is no truth to them.

Where do I get my strength?

I was just reading Chapter 8 - A Battle to Fight - The Enemy, from John Eldredge's "Wild at Heart".  He had some very good points which forced me to self-examine myself, and the sin in my life.  .

He says in the book, that Jesus warns against anything that gives a false sense of power.  Jesus said clearly to His disciples that those who want to become great, must make themselves less.  They must consider others better than themselves and put others before themselves.  Along these lines, the book asked me to reflect on two things.  First, where do I get my sense of power from, and second, how would I feel/view myself if tomorrow I was to lose those feelings of power?

As I contemplate, I have to admit some shameful things.  I get my feelings of power from the same things that the world says we should get our feelings of power.  I like the fact that I have achieved minor success in golf, and that people have shown me respect for it.  I like the fact that I am a teacher, because it is a respectable profession in the eyes of many.  I like when I am commended for work that I do in the classroom.  I appreciate when people commend me for the type of teacher I am, I feed off of it.  When I think about these truths though, I realize how shameful this is, for nowhere am I indicating that I get any feelings of strength from glorifying God.  All my feelings of strength come from how the world responds to the things that I have achieved.  If I am truly seeking to make Jesus the Lord of my life, then it must be Him alone that I am doing these things for (Colossians 3:23).  And to make matters worse, it has always been very clear to me that I have never accomplished anything in my life on my own.  Although I have worked hard for certain things, anything good that I have ever accomplished has come from God choosing to bless me.  How shameful it is that I accept God's blessings, and then seek the praise of people, rather than seeking to glorify the One that made it all possible.  I have made it a habit in my life to accept God's blessings and use them for my glory rather than His.  Yes, I do thank Him for the blessings, but then I relish in the praise of people. I get feelings of worth and strength from this, but it needs to stop immediately.

Eldredge's book states, "Without Christ a man must fail miserably, or succeed even more miserably".  How true this is.  Like I stated before, I have always realized that apart from God I can do nothing, for all good things I have ever accomplished have come from Him choosing to bless me and from Him allowing them to be accomplished in my life.  He has provided me the strength, ability, circumstances and general blessings to allow them to happen, but I want to stop succeeding miserably, and start doing so righteously.  The following are the things I feel I need to change in order to make this happen.  I realize however that I may be mistaken with some of this, but I'm thankful that God is not limited by my mistakes and I have faith that as I seek to glorify Him through these changes, that He will continually guide me and mold me to become the man He calls me to.

I need to stop caring about what people think, and focus solely on what God thinks.  I exist for His glory, not my own.  Even as I write this I am constantly wondering to myself, "I wonder if people will like this?  I hope they do like it, I hope they tell me they like it, and I hope they respect me more and view me better because of it".  I am a messed up individual.  My mind is so wrapped around what other people will think, rather than being completely focused on what the God of the universe - the One who made all people, and controls all things - thinks.  God, please change my way of thinking to be focused on pleasing you, not pleasing others as a means of pleasing myself and making myself feel worthwhile and strong.  I am nothing apart from you, and I want to glorify you.  "You must become greater, I must become less" (John 3:30).  Help me to always realize that the true path to strength and significance is to make myself a servant, just like Jesus did.  Help me to realize that the true way to become great is to place others before myself and serve them.  

I am excited to try and make these changes.  I know it will be a process, probably a lifelong one, but I look forward to seeking to glorify God in all that I do.  I look forward to striving to focus solely on pleasing Him and thinking only of what He thinks.  And I look forward to the satisfaction, strength, peace and joy that I know will come from doing so, for I have never regretted doing anything that God has called me to.

The Bible is not only good teaching

Anytime I have ever had any success in life it is because of God.  It is because of the fact that I am trying to do that which He instructs me to in His Word.  Some people say that the Bible is simply good teaching/lessons, and that is it.  This is not true however, because the entire message of the Bible, with all of its teachings, revolve around, and through, Jesus.  Without Jesus being the Son of God, the entire message of the Bible, along with all of its teachings is worthless.  The Bible is clear in teaching that in order for people to change, and adopt the teachings of the Bible, we need to rely on the Holy Spirit living within us to change us.  I have always noticed this in my own life.  Never can I think of a time where I have said, "Okay, by my own will-power, I am going to change in this way or that way".  It has always been, "Okay God, I know that Your Word calls me to change in this way, but I need your help.  As I do my part and put forth my best effort, please change me.  Change my heart so that I can become these ways that you have called me". 

Without Jesus, and the His Holy Spirit, the lessons of the Bible are meaningless to us, because there is no true change without the Lord.

Why many people have a hard time understanding the Holy Spirit

I have often found that it is very hard to explain to others what experiencing a relationship with God is like.  The best analogy I had been able to come up with was that it is much like being in love.  You can describe it all you want, but until you have actually experienced it, you cannot fully comprehend what it is like.

Yesterday I was reading John 14:15-25.  This passage sheds some more light onto this issue.  Jesus says in verse 21, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.  He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to Him".  And then in verse 23 Jesus continues saying, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching, My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him".  In other words, it is once you choose to trust in God as your Savior and Lord, then the Holy Spirit comes into your life.  And it is the presence of the Holy Spirit which allows you to feel God's presence in your life.  It is therefore no wonder why non-Christians have a hard time understanding, for we cannot fully experience God's presence until we choose to believe in Him and commit to following Him.

God wants to bless us!

Matthew 7:7-11 points out very powerfully that parents always want the best for their children, and will do whatever they can to give them the best things possible.  Therefore, how much more is God willing to bless us!  I find this extremely exciting.  Whenever I worry about what may happen in the future, such as will I be successful at work, or will something bad happen, I need to remind myself of these truths. God wants to bless me.  Good things won't always happen, but God has promised that even in those times, He uses those situations for good, for all those who love Him.  Therefore, when it comes to those things that I am tempted to worry or stress about, I must remember that God is in control, and that He wants to bless me.  He wants what is best for me and He wants to see me successful.  Therefore, I can have confidence that He will do this.  I can hold on to these promises.  And even if bad things happen, I can rejoice in the fact that He will use it for good.  They are promises like these which make me thankful to have a relationship with God.

He's given me a spirit of confidence

If I look back at Jesus' life, He was always confident.  Never was he timid or fearful.  He was wise, bold, confident and without fear.  He calls me to do the same.  And He has given me His Holy Spirit to help me.  I have the Holy Spirit living inside me and so I should never have a spirit of anything but confidence.  In everything I do I must do it as Jesus would, and that means being bold and confident....not arrogant or cocky, just confident as I seek to live righteously.