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Confidence is very important in living a good and happy life. Confidence shapes your lifestyle. It changes everything – the way you look at yourself, the way you look at others, the way you look at your situations, and the way you look at the world.
When you have confidence, you feel empowered. Even when things get difficult, you don’t easily break down.
You don’t worry so much about how other people perceive you. It’s not that you don’t care about what they say, but you don’t try to please them.
Confident people don’t take criticism, rejection, or failure personally. They are not arrogant but rather humble.
Confidence and Narcissism are very different.
Confident people do not prove to the world how smart they are, how capable they are, and how powerful they are. Narcissists constantly draw attention to themselves.
Confident people don’t take the spotlight. Narcissists always want to take the spotlight. They constantly draw attention to themselves.
When a narcissist becomes a leader, it’s very dangerous. Unfortunately, we have a lot of narcissistic leaders, not many leaders who are confident.
The question is: How do we have confidence?
People think that confidence comes from your positive experiences. When everything goes well, and when you get a lot of praise from people, when you are capable of doing things well, and when you are successful – all these positive experiences can give you confidence, they believe.
But Dr. Thomas Rutledge, a professor of psychology at UC San Diego said that’s not true.
There are people who are very successful but struggle with confidence. There are people who have many degrees, but they feel they are not good enough.
Confidence doesn’t come from affirmations, having many positive experiences, or achieving success. You don’t need fanfare or trophies, credentials to be confident, he said.
He said this,
The process of building confidence results from changing your thinking at the level of your core beliefs.
Yes, it comes from your beliefs. What are your core beliefs? Your beliefs change everything.
Jesus came to restore your belief in yourself.
Because of the damage done to us, because of so many failures we experienced, our beliefs have been distorted. We lost confidence in ourselves. We always feel that we are not good enough.
With the help of Jesus, you can change your thinking about yourself. So many people say that they believe in God, and yet they don’t believe in themselves.
This is what our Lord Jesus said.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)
Here “Very truly” is Amen, Amen in Hebrew. He didn’t just say, Amen. He said, Amen, Amen.
Jesus emphasized that we will do greater works than what he did. That is a tremendous statement. How can you do greater works than what Jesus did?
Jesus wanted to build confidence in the disciples. He knew he would go away soon, and so he wanted to build confidence in the disciples so that they could carry on what Jesus did.
Jesus said, you are not alone. I will help you.
I did not do my work alone either, Jesus said. He did it with the help of God.
He said,
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (John 14:10)
I will help you as the Father helped me.
He said,
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. (John 14:13, 14)
That was an incredible promise. The disciples needed it. They had to go through all kinds of persecutions without Jesus.
They needed the confidence more than anything else. Without confidence, they would have been destroyed. Without confidence, they had nothing.
But you know what? They actually carried out what Jesus started.
It was a miracle that Christianity survived through very severe persecutions. They were small number of people. They didn’t have influential power. They didn’t have much.
But they had confidence. They prayed with confidence, believing this promise. And they did it.
Jesus spread the good news mainly to Jews in Israel. But the disciples spread the good news from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The whole world was touched by their work. They indeed did greater works than Jesus.
In this passage, Jesus emphasized the importance of belief.
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (John 14:1)
Confidence is not what your experiences give you. Confidence is about your belief.
You may fail but you can do it again when you have belief. Failure is not the end. Failure is only a part of the process.
You may fall but you can stand up again. That is confidence.
St. Paul had this confidence.
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed… (2 Corinthians 4:7-9)
Paul went through all kinds of negative things in life, but he was not let down. He had the confidence to deal with all kinds of situations.
That’s why he said,
I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
Confidence comes from your belief. You don’t need more degrees, more successes, more affirmations, more fanfare to be confident.
You can do all things through God who strengthens you. If you have this belief, you will have confidence.
When I see Vladimir Guerrero Jr., I feel good. He always smiles like a teddy bear. He is always encouraging members.
And more than anything else, he is confident.
I don’t think his success gave him confidence. His confidence made him successful. That’s why he is always cheerful.
You can be successful without confidence, but internally you will be different from confident people. You will be pretty hardened and not very happy.
Vladdy said,
For me, Christ is everything.
Yes, Christ is everything. With Christ, you can do so much. With Christ, you will overcome all kinds of challenges.
My friends, live with confidence. Even death, face it with confidence.
What did St. Paul say about death?
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55)
Who is saying this? It is confidence who is saying this.
Be confident. You can do all things through God who strengthens you.
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