Confidence.

The Lord has been showing me something that is contagious among all peoples. Something that will make people follow and will make people walk of verbal and literally cliffs if someone appears to possess it. 

Confidence. 

Look at every leader. Obama, Hitler, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, anyone.

Everyone follows them because of their confident nature and manner. Rarely will anyone follow someone who isn't  very assured of what they believe or wont believe in their cause if they do not stand on it firmly. Even if they're completely wrong in every sense of the word, People are sucked into confidence. 

How does this apply to our relationship to the Father?

Do we know who we are in Christ?

Do we know our purpose and mission?

If so, are we standing on it like a solid rock that the Word says Jesus is, or do we treat it more like quick sand?

The writer of Hebrews had something to say about confidence.

3:13-15-¹³But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. ¹⁴We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. ¹⁵As has just been said: 

   "Today, if you hear his voice, 
      do not harden your hearts 

   as you did in the rebellion."^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[} 

4:15-16-¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

10:18-20-¹⁸And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. ¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,

10:35-36- ³⁵So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. ³⁶You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

13:5-7-⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 

   "Never will I leave you; 
      never will I forsake you." ⁶So we say with confidence, 
   "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. 
      What can man do to me?"

God has given me so much confidence as of late.

Not to say I'm one you should follow because my confidence is clearly overwhelming. 

But through trial after trial, revelation after revelation, prayer after prayer, God has come to me, defined me, and made me firm through it. I stand not on who I am, rather the Rock that Christ is. That is a promise of God for me: that I can live firmly and confidently through the Cross. Oh Lord, thank you for picking me out at an early age, so I didn't lose my identity further. 

Where is our confidence in the church...

I know for me, I am often terrified to bring up God in front of certain people, for I want my own image to be glorified rather than Christ. That is sin. 

My image means nothing, compared to the glory that Christ is going to receive on His day. 

I think we, as Christians, are afraid to branch out, to interact with someone who doesn't necessarily agree, and if they don't agree, they might know more about their "beliefs" than us, and the truth is, they probably do. I know if I was to get into an argument with an Atheist, they would probably beat me to a pulp; I wouldn't be able to "prove" the existence of God. But. I could love that person, and serve that person, more than anyone in their life ever has. And as cliche as that sounds, it would invoke a sense of worship, in me and in them. Even though they do not know Him, their souls cry out for Him. 

My point here is, do we have the confidence in our faith to be "proven" "wrong" and it not be defeat?  

I'm not out to argue whether or not my God exists. 

I know He does.

I am a product of His existence. 

I'm out there rather to love. To serve. To be with people. To fulfill my call be there for people and through this, the very character of Christ, who Himself confidently did this, won souls. 

They are not projects. They are people. With emotions and feelings just as you and I.

I have the confidence in who my God is, to know who I am.

If he doesn't exist, then who I know I am doesn't either. 

Friends, like the writer of Hebrews, I urge you not to through this precious gift of confidence away. It will be rewarded. Rather, cultivate it. Use it. Live it in. We have been given EVERYTHING we need for life and godliness. That includes confidence in God, and in ourselves.  

1 John 4:17 

In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.