Confidence

I was flicking through channels tonight and ran across a disturbing yet inspirational scene of a movie. The movie is, “Just Friends” The scene I stumbled across was of a guy sitting on top of a girl in anger yelling, “Life’s not about making people like you, manipulating them and stalking them, it’s just being who you are and putting yourself out there, and moving on!” Obviously this is said within the context of a dating relationship, which I could totally allow myself to get into because of all my opinions of that due to recent events, but will spare you for now. This thought carry’s over into life outside of dating as well. I think it carries into every relationship, whether it is just friends, dating, parental, professional, and church (not the building, the universal body).

Jesus calls us to be reborn and operate out of a totally different center, set of values, and live life abundantly, This can only be accomplished by following Him and His ways, more than just religion, I mean the nitty gritty stuff too, forgiving, loving your enemy, abstaining from immorality, putting others before yourself, humility, and giving stuff way(money and life). This can only be accomplished by having Christ as your center, He now dictates the way you make decisions and live life. We are to have no confidence in our flesh, but in Christ. The flesh is referring to our original nature, the person we were born, our original set of values and ways. So Jesus wants us to put our confidence in Him. By putting our confidence in Him we should be confident in how He affects us and the things we choose to (and not to) do. Our confidence is now placed in those things, thus we can go around life confident in who we are. Confidence does not desire affirmation. Confidence is having hope in something within, not a distant third party of factor. So many times we go through life trying to impress certain people, gain their affirmation or approval. Is this not down right discouraging and almost depressing? We go to great lengths to try to get them to like us, but sometimes they just don’t and because our expectation was to try to make them like us, when they don’t we are crushed. We are crushed because our hope or confidence was not in ourselves, it was in their response. Twisted right? Think about it though, when’s the last time you were hurt by some kind of relationship?

If our confiedence is in who we are in Christ then what others say or think should not dictate our happiness or the way we act. No longer will outside forces regulate us because our confidence is not in that, it is in us, in Christ, who dwells in us. So may you be confident in who you are, who Christ has made you, and roll through life full of hope in Him, not others. If you don’t know Christ may you seek Him, don’t just listen to me or other people who call themselves Christians, check it out for yourself. You don’t have to believe what I do, but it is foolish to not even look into it. May you find who you are in Christ, know who He is and be confident in that.