Confidence

“For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.”  Proverbs 3:26

The story is told of a second string quarterback who was called up by his coach to go into a football game with his team behind by two touchdowns and two minutes left in the game.  The quarterback strapped on his helmet, and begin to run out on the field toward the huddle.  He suddenly stopped, turned around, and trotted back to the coach.  When he faced the coach, he unstrapped his helmet, took a squirt of water, and said, “Coach, I forgot to ask you, do you want me to just tie this game or go ahead and win it?”  Now, that’s confidence!

Confidence is defined as trust, faith, and assurance in something.  I am confident of many things – night will follow day, the earth will spin on its axis, spring will follow winter, doctors will make good decisions about  health issues, pilots are well trained to fly  an airplane, and eternal life will follow death – just to name a few.

There are people I know who must exhibit confidence each day in things ranging from addictions to illnesses and everything in between.  These folks have trust, faith and assurance, not only in the worldly things, but in God.  Confidence in God yields contentment.  I see this contentment when I look at them.

Confidence is also boldness.  There are people I know who exhibit this boldness by acting on their beliefs.  They don’t just talk about what God can do, they act on it.  They know God personally and believe He is able to do whatever they ask in His name.  I believe in that kind of confidence.  Grace is the face I see when I think of this kind of confidence.  She has confidence in miracles – great and ordinary.

God wants us to be confident that he’s pouring His strength into us so that we can do whatever it takes to overcome the obstacles in our life.  He wants us to ultimately find our confidence resting in Him.  God tells us that our confidence is secured in Christ, and we can have it to the fullest.

This Super Bowl weekend, I pray that we, just like the quarterback in the story will face each day with confidence, boldness, contentment, and assurance.  Grace, you are that quarterback to me!

“For I am confident that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things presents, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:38-39