So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
There are a few areas in my life where I have a fair amount of confidence – I make a pretty mean sugar cookie, and my character voices while reading books to my granddaughter are exceptional – at least she thinks so! But there are far more areas in my life where I lack confidence. Truth be told…I am not an especially confident person in general. I tend to scrutinize and assess every little detail about myself from the work that I do to the words I use in sending off a simple text message. Sometimes my assessment leaves me feeling inadequate and it even stops me from moving forward at all…I don’t press into that new idea because someone might think it’s dumb and I don’t want to risk the rejection. Or, I don’t send that text because the person on the receiving end might think I’m weird or they might misunderstand me so I say nothing at all. I spend a lot of time measuring my words and my actions carefully based on how I think others will respond to me and what they will think about me based on our interaction. I second guess myself alot.
If I’m not careful, my confidence can easily become wrapped up in what I think I can and cannot do. But verses like today remind me that my confidence isn’t dependent on what I can do, but what has been done for me. It’s not about how I measure up in someone else’s eyes, but rather the love in the eyes of my savior that sees me as His, flaws and all, and still thinks I am worth the sacrifice. My value to Him isn’t based on what I do. No trophy or accolade would make Him more proud of me. He just loves me. He loved me yesterday…He loves me right now…and He’ll love me tomorrow still, whether I follow through on that great idea or not, and no matter what I say in that text message. Living my life according to my own self-confidence will always leave me feeling less than. And that’s not really living at all. But choosing to live from the confidence of God’s unending, pure, and unselfish love is key to living well.
