Confidence for Today

Important Dates Coming Up - Purim Feb 25th - Feb 26th

The Feast of Purim begins on the evening of Feb 25th and ends the evening of Feb 26th. Purim comes from the book of Esther and is the day the tables were turned for God's people. It is a reminder of how quickly God can take us from fasting to feasting when the tables are turned. The typical tradition is to fast during the daylight hours on Feb 26th(basically skip breakfast and lunch) and feast in the evening, as a reminder of how quickly God can turn things around.

Confidence for Today

Yesterday started the 40 day period of Lent leading up to Passover. During Lent it's customary for people to abstain from things like meat, alcohol, or other things they feel led to abstain from. In Exodus 31:16-17 it says that on the 7th day God abstained from work and rested.

The most important thing to abstain from is our own works, and to rest and allow God to work through us. The key is immersing ourselves in God's word to clean out ways we are working in our own strength rather than God's. But, this requires confidence in God rather than ourselves. Confidence that God will come through and never let us down.  

What is confidence? Confidence in God is one of the highest expressions of trust. To be confident is a state where all doubt is removed. It is a state where we have moved from believing to knowing and trusting. To be confident in God means that we fully trust that he is with us, wants to make us great, and is more than enough for everything we need in life. To put our confidence in God rather than ourselves is a tremendously freeing feeling because it takes the pressure off of us. 

Business mentor Dan Sullivan has a formula for confidence called the 4 C's which are commitment, courage, capability, and confidence. 

But before we can get to these we must first deal with condemnation.1 John 3:21 says if our hearts do not condemn us we will have confidence before God. We must believe that God wants to help, take the pressure off of ourselves, and learn to rest because we are confident in him. God has given us access into his grace and everything he has because of Jesus and not our own works. We often think God is mad at us or doesn't want to talk to us but he is giving us grace and is constantly focused on doing good for us. We must learn to walk with confidence that God is with us, because of Jesus. Once we have dealt with condemnation then we can move onto commitment, courage, and capability.

Confidence in God starts with a commitment to live according to his ways. Once we have made the commitment it requires a burst of courage to get started, but when God is our confidence and we trust that he will never let us down it is much easier to take courageous steps of faith. 

An amazing thing happens when we take courageous steps of faith, we step into the flow of God's grace and his capability rather than our own. God has given us access to everything he has, an unlimited inexhaustible supply of his wisdom, understanding, power, grace, love, peace, joy, energy, health, finances, time, and much more. And as we walk by faith and confidence we access this pipeline of living water and it begins to flow in our lives. 

As we see God come through it grows our confidence in him even more, and it builds a positive cycle. The more we put our trust and confidence in him, the more we see him do and the higher our levels of trust and confidence in him grow. This is one of the most freeing feelings in the world, because it takes the pressures of life off of us and puts the demands onto God's supply rather than our own. 

Putting our confidence in God's grace and his unlimited ability rather than our own is one of the most freeing feelings there is. 

Here is how to apply confidence in God TODAY using the 30 Day Prayer Challenge we have been doing this month...

1. Pray the 2 minute prayer each day.
2. After praying take a few minutes to get still and ask the following questions.
   1. What do you know you need to do over the next day?
   2. Is there anything on your conscience you have procrastinating on?
   3. Ask God what is the most important thing he is trying to tell or show you over the last day?
   4. Ask God if there is anything not on your list that he would like to be done in the next 24 hours? Put another way what is the one thing God really wants done today?

Once this is done you have a plan of what you feel God wants you to do over the next 24 hours. Now, make the commitment to take action on the plan and get started. Take the first step with the confidence that as you walk out the day, God is with you. Trust that he is with you equipping and empowering you in everything you do with his peace, joy, and power. And expect that he is going to give you supernatural help today.

As you do this for ONE DAY, and see God come through, it builds your confidence for the next day, and your confidence in him will grow exponentially over time.