Confident Examples (Confidence Part 2)

Last week I introduced my Word of the Year. The word I have chosen to study in-depth and apply to my life this year. The word I want to grow by in 2014. The word? CONFIDENCE

As mentioned in last week’s blog, I quickly discovered that confidence has nothing to do with ‘increasing’  or strengthening my abilities—according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary,  the first definition of confidence is  “The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something, -a firm trust”. My confidence is determined by how much I trust, rely on, and believe Someone else!

This thought quickly led to Philippians 1:6, which has become my theme verse for this year of confidence building. The first stage of this journey is to develop and strengthen my trust and belief in what God has planned for my life~~~not to develop and strengthen my abilities and talents.

…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Throughout this past week, I have been listening for examples of the word confidence. Here are some of the phrases I heard:

A confident quarterback

A confident coach

A confident consumer

So, just what makes these people confident? Their own abilities? 

While listening to the sports’ commentator who was speaking of the confident quarterback, I noticed a very interesting statement….which goes hand in hand with the above definition.

The quarterback was confident in his offensive line. He trusted, relied on, and believed in those five guys who lined up beside him. As long as he could depend on them, he felt comfortable throwing the ball down the field. He also had confidence in his receivers. He trusted, relied on, and depended on their capable hands to catch the ball.  There was no mention of his great arm or his magnificent accuracy.

I got to thinking about the other two examples.

A confident coach believes in his players.

A confident consumer believes in a product.

Later, a victorious football player talked about team confidence…that believed in, relied on, and depended on…. each other.

So, what allows a committed-follower of Christ to become a confident teacher, leader, writer, parent, pastor’s wife, student, and the list goes on…?

It all centers around Who we believe, Who we rely upon, and Who we depend on to guide us, lead us, prepare us, use us…..

Being confident of this very thing….

Debbie