I’ve got some Brady stories. He’s my middle son. You got that kid that says “do you dare me to…” With mine, it’s usually followed up with, if I do this will you give me money $5 haha. I recently made Brady eggs for breakfast. Brady asked for hot sauce. I have no clue where that came from. In the Coache house if you put hot sauce or ketchup on eggs or mac and cheese we consider you a psychopath. So I said, dude have you ever had hot sauce. NO. So I told him to try it first pouring a little out for him. He would confidently bring it to his mouth. Then stop. Put it down. Then back to his mouth. It was a little dance we played. He invited his sister in, then his brother. Same dance. Confidently to his mouth, back down. Finally, he did it. Then he threw a fit and stuck his head under the faucet making a scene and we all laughed. About a month later with some friends over, Brady said “you guys dare me to jump off the deck with my bike.” Sure, whatever. He looked at me and I was said “you do you dude, but if you get hurt its on you.’ (its two steps, not exactly a Tony Hawk or anything). The same dance. Rode fast and confidently to the edge. Stopped. Went back. Confidently to the edge. Stop back. Finally he did it. It was no big deal.
Have you been in a situation like that? For many it came as kids. As adults this dance starts to look different. We will confidently take this job. Then no. We will confidently talk to this girl. Then no. During this dance we get in our own heads. We are telling ourselves things that would make us confidently move forward. “You’re the right fit for the job.” “She looked at you, you’ve got an in, go talk to her.” Then the dance. “Maybe someone else is a better fit.” “I’m sure she was looking at my friend.” The conversation changes and we slowly back away.
See if you can pick up a repeated theme in this verses;
Eph. 3:12 “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”
Heb. 3:6 “but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”
Heb. 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Heb. 10:19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,”
1 John 2:28 “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.”
1 John 3:21 “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God”
There are about 5 other verses I want to share but you get the point. You see the theme. This is an issue in our culture. The issue falls on two extremes. We have many who are overly confident while others extremely lack confidence.
Is this perhaps in the metrics we are using to build up our confidence? For some it’s how many girls you have “been with.” You can confidently boast that number to your friends, but to someone you’re about to marry? Far less confident in it. We can confidently look at our retirement until there is a crash and overnight we lose 40%.
In my world, I can build a case for confidence in church attendance numbers, my kids, my church budget, and a variety of “things.” Is this what God calls me to take confidence in? Is this lasting confidence?
If we put confidence in things that are fleeting, we will experience a confidence that is fleeting. Read back over these verses. I get to approach God with confidence because I am forgiven and accepted by Jesus. This confidence isn’t fleeting. It is eternal. I will never be able to approach God confidently with any of the aforementioned metrics. Why? God don’t care about those metrics. I come confidently in the person of Jesus. He cares deeply about Jesus and therefore cares deeply about me.
"Godly confidence draws us closer to Jesus."
This is critical. If we don’t get this, we will continue to do this confidence dance. This back and forth. It has been Satan’s strategy since beginning. Want to know another word for a lack of confidence? DOUBT. Godly confidence draws us closer to Jesus. The enemies doubt is used to draw us away. We have no reason to draw away from God because we have Jesus. Yet, doubt creeps in the form of a lack of worth, “I don’t deserve You” “You can’t possibly really forgive me” “Did He really say?” “Is He really asking me too” You fill in the blank. There is no shortage of doubtful.
Feeling a lack of confidence? What metrics are you using? Feeling overly confident? What metrics are you using? In Christ, you will find perfect humility meets perfect confidence. That’s the dance of the Christian.
Go. Be confident. You have Jesus. Stay humble.
Keep Praying for One,
Written by Pastor Jason Coache,
Lead Pastor of Wellspring Church
