First John 5:14 states “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us”. So how to we define confidence? According to the Greeks, confidence is reliance, dependence or trust. For this week, we will define confidence as freedom of speech.

All my life I’ve had to deal with several issues - one of them being confident of myself. This is because several things make us unsure of who we are. For women, our body image plays a very important role. How you perceive yourself will determine whether you are confident of your capabilities or not. This is made worse when people we have in our lives makes it hard for us to be confident by continuously pressing those buttons that hurt us most destroying our self image and degrading our confidence.

None of us is perfect, the society we live in has dictated so many things that confidence has become something we have to cultivate on our own. I came to America for my masters early this January. I looked for a job for over 6 months to no avail. My confidence in finding something good quickly deteriorated. Even though my family never seemed to mind about it, inwardly I was stressed so much. I went for numerous interviews of which none of them ever yielded anything. I would constantly ask God why this is happening to me and every time a voice would tell me to continue trusting in God.

Stories from other people gave me hope when they told me how hard it was for them to get jobs but after a while, things looked up. This gave me the confidence to continue pursuing my desire of getting a good job. God states that if we ask him anything according to his will, then he will hear us and grant us our heart desires. I continued to ask God every day to grant me my heart desires and his will be done in my life. This is something I do on a daily basis regardless.

The success that each of us has in life is built on self-confidence, our ability to put our all in everything that we do. We have to persevere and be optimistic that at the end of the road, everything will look up as we continue to trust in our God. It is that trust in the Lord that has brought me this far and everyday I continue to put my trust in the Lord for he is the one that gives me the confidence that I need to be able to overcome any obstacles on my way.

Confidence is belief. As long as we believe in the son of God then our confidence will be there. Believing takes place in our minds but it manifests itself in our words and deeds. You go for an interview which you are qualified for, but lack of confidence may limit your chances of getting the job. Confidence is an absolute trust that does not allow a taint of doubt or skepticism irrespective of the circumstance. One of God’s people who had confidence in him is Job. See Job 1:20. He developed confidence with his creator by forming an intimate relationship and this calls for us to boldly come before his throne of Grace for remission of our sins.

In conclusion, I would urge you to measure your confidence. Whether is it confidence according to Greeks or the confidence covered in this chapter. My confidence enabled me get a job with Alcatel-Lucent, and up to now I still give God all the glory and honor. If you can exhibit true confidence, then you are a Christian. Life throws so many things at us and if we can demonstrate our trust in God, then we should be able to sail through. Confidence is enactment, whether bold or tentative, of true faith. Having self-confidence is believing in your capabilities as an individual. However, confidence in God goes far beyond such wish fulfillment. Self-confidence is attractive, but God-confidence, faith, is inspiring.