Our world culture teaches us that our greatest success depends, to large degree, upon an enlarged sense of self-confidence. Therefore, much of our life is built around developing our sense of confidence in who we are and what we can do. Indeed, we often derive our greatest sense of worth based upon whether we are admired and loved for—what we accomplish, who we help, how we look, etc. Without a doubt, we ALL desire to be completely accepted and admired for who we are.
I am no exception…I’ve lived my entire life in a frantic pursuit of more SELF-confidence.
Because we didn’t have much in the way of material possessions, as a child, I always felt like I needed to work harder to earn the acceptance of my peers. This carried over into adulthood, and so I pursued higher education, built a successful law practice, worked-out multiple times a day, tried to be a super-mom, and an outwardly good Christian. I developed my talents and always went for the biggest and best in everything! I wanted to be admired by others as a remarkably successful and beautiful woman, thus—I did everything I could to build my SELF-confidence.
But until I got to know God, I did NOT realize that by inflating my SELF-confidence, I was actually limiting my true SELF!
What???
Yes!
We can never know our truest self until we know God. There is only room for one person on the throne of our heart—God or self. In the pursuit of self, I was living in opposition to the Master who created a Divine masterpiece in me. Just like Eve. Eve ate the fruit in the garden because she believed the lie that she could be LIKE God and thus, live INDEPENDENTLY FROM Him. She believed the lies of the enemy—about God. She allowed the enemy to define God and make Him the bad guy.
My friend, WHY would we ever want to live independently from our omniscient, omnipotent, and loving God when He is the ONLY one who thought we were worth dying for! All those people we are trying to impress with our SELF-confidence do NOT love us like God does. We must not live deceived by the poisonous lies of the enemy about building our “success” through SELF-sufficiency or SELF-confidence. The enemy does not want us to experience the great success God plans for us when we live totally surrendered to HIM. We must remember:
When we are SELF-confident, our accomplishments are limited to our own abilities; but when we are GOD-confident our potential is as unlimited as He is!
What a revelation this was for me! When we are born again, we have the ability to have the beautiful, omniscient, mind of Christ and to be filled with His Almighty Spirit. When I read this beautiful passage and absorb the thought of how special I am to my Savior, it makes me want to find my greatest confidence in HIM!
Acts 17:24-28a“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we LIVE and MOVE and HAVE our being.’”
When we realize our desperate need for God, who chases us down, and we begin to chase Him back—we develop a relationship that gives us HIS confidence. How? In God’s presence we discover that we are perfectly and completely loved. In fact, we realize He loves us more than we love ourselves. This love entreats us to surrender every area of our life to Him. As we do, God’s presence explodes our talent, increases the resources He places into our stewardship, and maximizes the things we can accomplish in the time He gives us. His presence becomes our oxygen! We strongly desire to “live, move and have our being” in HIM.
“GOD-confidence” takes us higher and further than ANY amount of SELF-confidence!
We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.
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