Confidence

There are areas of my life where I am confident in my abilities. For example, I am the “breakfast chef” at my house. I’m a morning person and my wife struggles with morning. I say, “Good morning Lord” and she says, “Good Lord, it’s morning”!  I feel good about my kitchen skills, because my Mom taught me to cook when I was a kid. I still make mistakes every now and then like putting food in the oven on “pre-heat” mode and it nearly burns it up. Nevertheless, my confidence level is strong in this area.  I have many other areas of my life where I’m not nearly as confident. I’m very tentative when I’m not confident.  I actually talk to the Lord about this because I don’t want to appear incompetent, but I don’t want to appear arrogant either.

King Ahab was not a follower of God, but he was king of Israel. He was being threatened by the king of Aram.  The king of Aram made many demands and finally the king of Israel pushed back. The king of Aram threated utter destruction with confidence to the point of arrogance. The king had a good response to him worth noting. Check this out….

¹¹ The king of Israel sent back this answer: “A warrior putting on his sword for battle should not boast like a warrior who has already won.” (1 Kings 20:11 NLT)

The king of Israel had a visit from a prophet of God that predicted victory for Israel and it happened. The king of Aram was defeated soundly.

That phrase settled in my heart, because it was a bit “out of character” for Ahab, whose track record of following the Lord was not good. I do want to be confident in the battles I will face today. I don’t want the confidence to come from me and my abilities. I want my confidence to be in the Lord.

He leads me.

He counsels me.

He directs my path.

He is with me every step of the day.

I trust the Lord to help me navigate the threats that I might face. I trust the Lord to help me face any battle with confidence because of my faith in Him. I am asking every day for the blessing and the favor of God over me, my family, my friends and clients. His favor over me matters more to me than the current state of the economy in our country or the world. I do not want to appear arrogant in any way, but I do want my confidence in the Lord to shine through my journey.

Pressing On!

Dwayne