Confident Attitude

A confident attitude is an attitude of a great faith in God, whereas self-confidence is a total reliance on yourself which is foolish as pointed our many times in Proverbs. When it comes to the crunch you ultimately cannot rely on yourself and your wisdom. An interesting point to note is that an unbeliever achieves more if they are confident than a believer who does not have a confident attitude. Confidence is a quality of assurance that leads you to undertake something, a belief that you are acceptable and able. Confidence makes you bold and open to ideas and that will cause you to do things that no one else has ever done and you will consequently have an amazingly awesome life. God has equipped each and every one of us for greatness but there are millions of dormant gifts just lying around all over the world. Our god is a great god and when He comes to dwell in us we should automatically sense that we can do great things for Him, through Him and with Him. We will feel a sense of determination enter our heart which is a sign that the Holy Spirit is within us. We all have a seed of greatness within ourselves. Your greatness may not manifest in the same way as someone else's because God wants us all to be different. Dream big dreams and think big thoughts! If you do not have a confident attitude your potential in Christ will never be reached and if you do not do what God has put you on this earth to do. As a result, you will become frustrated and be unfulfilled in your life. The only way that you can be happy and content is if you are doing what God intended. If you have no confidence, fear will rule your life and you will experience no enjoyment and feel robbed of your destiny. Also, without confidence you are open to being controlled and manipulated by other people who will use and abuse you if you don't stand up to them. Jesus did not die for us to live fearful, insecure lives so we need to grow in confidence because the Holy Spirit inside of us is grieved when he sees us this way and that then causes us to feel grieved too. Sometimes when we feel sad it is not necessarily our own sadness that we are feeling but that of the Holy Spirit within. People who are insecure compare and compete all the time, constantly looking around at others for a measure of what they think they ought to be and if they don't feel they are better or greater than others then they are not happy. Insecure people never grow up spiritually because they can't handle any kind of correction; they see it as harsh criticism, rather than constructive advice. When a person already feels bad about themselves, it's almost impossible to try and bring any sort of correction into their lives because they just can't handle it, even in its most basic form. We need to be confident in Christ's confidence and in that he has promised never to leave or forsake us. Through Christ, you can do anything you need to do as He strengthens you through trials, tragedies and so on. When we lack confidence, we have an attitude of "I can't handle this, I can't stand this, I can't do this". But a confidence attitude says "God is with me and I can do whatever I need to do through Christ who strengthens me." Now, which is the most desirable attitude?! God is not surprised by anything that you are going through right now. He knew it was going to happen and He has a solution waiting for you if you have the right attitude. He wants you to hold your head up high, don't get dejected, depressed and down-trodden. Just know that you can do anything in Christ without even needing to know the slightest detail. God came to earth in a human body - Jesus and he humbled himself right until his death. He was rejected, beaten and humiliated but he never lost his confidence. Confidence and humility go together because real confidence acknowledges that you are nothing in yourself but that you are everything in Christ. If God is with you, you don't need to know anything else because He knows everything and the things He wants you to know, He will tell you. He will do what needs to be done in your life, but not usually when you would like Him to. God has his own schedule, but He is never late and He is never early. We can all do great things through Christ if we get our minds off what we think we are and what we think we are not. Humility will deal with itself as God will point out when we have got something wrong. True confidence doesn't come from perfection and having no flaws. It comes from knowing that God is with you. Many of us stress and struggle over our faults but we need to stop that and focus on our strengths and develop them. Accept your flaws, but acknowledge that your strengths are bigger than your weaknesses. Sometimes our biggest gift can also be our biggest downfall; our mouth is often that.

Jesus prayed all night the night before choosing his disciples. In 'real' terms they were all inadequate for the position. They lacked background, education, vocational aptitude, team spirit but God got in on the decision and it was made perfect. Often those who are rejected by society are the ones that God will pick up and use to do great things and this is what happened here. The moment that we start to think more highly of ourselves than what we actually are is the moment we are on our way down. The first sign of this is when we start to mistreat others due to a belief of superiority when in fact we are all equal and the only reason that that person has climbed is because God put His grace into them. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13. God can turn what we perceive our greatest flaw into our greatest asset. Make peace with your flaws, refuse to be frustrated with them and realise that they are gifts from God. God calls us because of our heart, not our behaviour or our faults so love gets you a long way and the more you love God the greater your life will be. Paul said, "I am what I am through God", so there was no way he could get upset about what he couldn't do. God chose Saul to everyone's horror as he was the man who intended to kill all the Christians in the world. Saul had all the talents and gifts, they were just turned around in the wrong direction, so God used His grace to help turn him and his life around. This is why Paul wrote so much about grace in the Bible; he had so much firsthand knowledge. If God gets in on your plan then it will work, which will amaze everybody whilst He remains faithful and provides. God sees what we can be if we get our eyes off what we're not and get them on Him. Refocus!