Self-Confidence:

The self-assured winner

Bright, assured, talented, relational, optimistic, focused, whity, patient and calm…

Wouldn’t we all like our personal Curriculum Vitae to read like this?

And truly there are people who seem to have it all together…right?

They’re the ones we secretly admire, want to be bff with, or perhaps can’t stand…true?

They seem brimming with self-confidence and perhaps like they have-it-all…

However I believe that reality is actually somewhat different to what we imagine.

The grass-is-not always greener as we can imagine it to be…

Some people, who may seem so confident during the day can’t sleep at night properly, worrying about finances or even death…

Some people can’t relax due to the compromises they’ve had to make for their ‘lifestyle’…

Some people are so self-assured that they can alienate others, even becoming aggressive, believing their own self-confident fantasy that they are above others…

Some successfully wealthy people struggle with real personal relationships, and choose to fill the void with unhealthy habits…

Some people secretly compromise fidelity in their marriage to accommodate their partner, from fear of being alone…

I want to be counter-cultural in this post and suggest that it’s ok if you want more self-confidence…but that you won’t find it if you look to broken people…

Even if you think they’re not broken (cause you may find a celebrity ,or business person who doesn’t have dirt published on them)…chances are high that you still would be disappointed if you got to know them personally, because to have-it-all, so to speak, they probably have made some pretty harsh choices!

 

Now I REALLY don’t want to come across as someone who has life all together and is perfect…cause that’s not true…in fact today I had a moment of feeling insecure, and decided to do something which I knew wasn’t good for me…YOU SEE WE ALL HAVE MOMENTS WHERE WE DOUBT OUR SELF WORTH BECAUSE OF OTHER PEOPLE!

Now I know you know what I mean…perhaps our friends haven’t been very reliable…perhaps we’ve got on a few more kilos than we’d like and someone mentions it…perhaps someone spoke to us in a condescending way…perhaps we’re just tired and stressed…perhaps we have hang-ups from our past that trigger us…

True self-confidence comes from Jesus Christ…YES I know I am being counter-cultural here J

True dignity and self-worth comes from Him…not from yourself, or other people…because other people, and us, are unreliable!

Furthermore we all know that even the world itself is unreliable!  We all know of stories of investments turned bad, unforseen tragedies, famine and floods and so on…

Yet Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and in Him we find true peace and value as human beings…regardless of what the world, people who scorn us, or even ourselves from time to time, may say about us!

True self-confidence is an invisible quality that transcends from a person when they are truly anchored firmly in Jesus!  It does not mean that these people will never stumble…rather they will be able to respond with hope and calmness during life’s storms, because they know that the one who is FAITHFUL & UNCHANGING declares that they are a child of God and valued highly!

This is TRUE self-confidence! 

It is knowing who you are…a child of God saved and transformed by His grace!  It’s NOT false self-confidence…like the perfect, photo-shopped glossy photos from popular magazines who try to depict Godless people as successful, confident and self-secure!  Deep down we know the true reality about what the world wants us to think is the glamorous life!  People on the inside who are exhausted and starving for the true meaning of life…

When Pontius Pilate was with Jesus, Jesus told Pilate that the reason He had come into the world was to testify to the TRUTH!  It is very sad that even though Jesus was standing right in front of Pilate telling him the true meaning of life, Pilate still didn’t get it, for he responded to Jesus with “what is the truth?”  But is Pilate that different to the rest of us before we realised that the truth we were searching for was Jesus Christ?

Self-confidence we all want it in our un-reliable world…but we strive for it our own way, and on our own terms…when the truth is that we won’t find it on our own, because the creator of the world has a different plan!!!

In humility we need to acknowledge that we can’t do life with true self-confidence alone.  We need to confess our sin of having ourselves as god, and ask Jesus Christ to fill us with His Life, Truth and Peace…then our new goal needs to be seeking Jesus daily to grow in His Love and Truth so that we can stand assured of who we are through God’s mercy and grace!

 

In Peace, Melanie :)