Your level of confidence will, to a great extent, determine how
your life turns out.
Your level of confidence will, to a great extent, determine how your life turns out.
Confidence can make the difference in whether or not a person gets a job or a promotion or makes a sale. Confidence is a huge factor in how well a team plays and a leader leads. If you want to make a positive impact in the world, you need to become confident.
The question, of course, is how do we do that? Our culture tries to persuade us that we can build confidence with three ingredients:
They say we need to start with our appearance. If we look good, we will feel good about ourselves and exude confidence. This thinking is what’s behind the multi-billion-dollar cosmetic-surgery industry. Yet despite technology, Proverbs 31:30 inevitably proves true: “Beauty is fleeting.” Which is OK with the surgeons, they just bring you in for more. But, c’mon … at some point we gotta get real.
You probably heard of the commotion downtown last week. Two elderly ladies were walking down the sidewalk when an old man streaked by naked. One lady turned to the other and asked, “Did you see what he was wearing?!?” The other lady said, “No, but whatever it was, it needed ironing.”
OK, bad jokes aside, when we put our trust in our appearance we are setting ourselves up, because even the greatest beauty fades with age. Remember when you were a teen and always worried about a pimple popping up at an inopportune time? Just about the time my face cleared up, my hair started falling out. In the words of that great theologian, Roseanne Roseannadanna, “It’s always something!”
The second component of confidence our culture tries to get us to buy into is that the more wealth we can acquire, the more confident we can be. They want you to believe that your valuables determine your value. And it seems their pitch is being bought by most of us. Psychology Today magazine surveyed 20,000 people and 74 percent of those surveyed said they determined their self value by the amount of money they have.
God, on the other hand, says just the opposite: Proverbs 11:7 says, “Confidence placed in riches comes to nothing.” Job said, “If I put my confidence in gold … I would have denied God above” (Job 31:24,28). The Apostle Paul instructed his disciple Timothy to, “Tell those who have the riches of this world not to be arrogant and not to place their confidence in anything as uncertain as riches. Instead, they should place their confidence in God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).
The third ingredient for confidence our culture promotes is accomplishments. Like appearance and acquisitions, this is another dead end. In Jeremiah 9:23, the Lord says, “Wise men should not boast of their wisdom, nor strong men of their strength, nor rich men of their wealth. If anyone wants to boast, he should boast that he knows and understands Me…”
Here God mentions the “Big Three” in American values: intelligence, physical ability and wealth. In America, to be dumb, weak or poor is a sin. Yet even a brief look at life around us reveals that the most successful people are often the most insecure. Many are downright neurotic. If we don’t learn to separate our self worth from our acquisitions, appearance and accomplishments, we’re going to be miserable people.
So if all these things we chase after are false confidence builders, what is a reliable source? The short answer is God. As Philippians 3:3 says, “We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we are confident in what Christ Jesus has done for us.” Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.”
Next week we will take a detailed look at what building our confidence in the Lord really means and how we can go about doing it.
Henry Harris is lead pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church, 330 Tres Pinos Rd. in Hollister. If you have questions or comments, please visit the church Web site at www.rollinghillsfamily.com, e-mail pa*********@****************ly.com or phone (831) 636-5353.
