Someone asked me how I got my self-confidence back. That’s a great question.
I have a past that would be crushing to most. It held me down for a long time. It kept me from succeeding. To a large extent, my past stood between me and everything and everyone. One way that it manifested itself was a lack of self-confidence.
Would you like to have more self-confidence?
The journey that God used to heal me is described in my book – You Are Who GOD Says You Are: 8 Steps to Overcoming the Past. If you have a copy, step 7 would be that self-confidence booster. Step 7 is about completing a short-term plan. It must be a plan that God gives you.
My short-term plan was to write a children’s book. I was not able to do it on my own. I had to rely on God. You may have heard me say that I write with a pen and a prayer. It’s true.
When Bouncing Beaver Discovers God was printed and in my hands, I decided to offer some copies to a library. For various reasons, they returned my book to me with a rejection letter. One of the reasons was that the book promotes a website. Someone else suggested to me that I rewrite the book and remove those references.
In the past, that whole scenario would have hurt my feelings. However, it didn’t this time. Bouncing Beaver is a character on the Drew’s Animals website. She has to jump off the website to talk to Robbie and Drew. Robbie and Drew introduce Bouncing Beaver to the Bible and the creation story. She learns a lot of lessons along the way, and part of the plot includes what is going on back at the website. There is no way to take the website out of the book. More importantly though, I had written what God gave me for the plot as best as I could.
Since I had relied heavily on God to provide for that book, I didn’t feel criticized at all. I had tried to obey God, and I wasn’t going to change it for anyone. The secret to having more self-confidence is to follow God in all things. If you are doing what God would have you to do and someone doesn’t approve, . . . Oh well!
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10
That verse follows and precedes verses about preaching the gospel. However, no matter what you are doing, you ultimately have a choice. You can serve man, or you can serve Christ.
I figure if I’m following God and someone disapproves, they are free to take it up with Him. What about you?
LIFE APPLICATION
Today’s challenge is to understand that not only can God heal your pain, but also that your self-confidence can be grounded in doing His will. Spend a lot of time praying and listening to learn what that is. Walk faithfully with God, obey Him, and apply His Word to your life. Make God more important to you than anyone else. Self-confidence comes from deciding that you’d rather serve Christ than please men, and then doing it.