Confidence

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those that dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance." - Bruce Barton

Where does confidence come from? On two levels, I suppose: the day to day level of confidence, and the ultimate underlying bedrock of the Christian's confidence.

I ask this in the context of being one who often does not have a great of deal of confidence, at least in myself. There are morning like this morning that I feel ready to take on the world, to bend life's mighty energies to my purposes; and then there are the evenings when I roll home and hang my head in the car after I turn it off, feeling completely defeated.

So where does it come from, this confidence that enables people to do what seems impossible to to me to even conceive? I'd love to have that kind of confidence, the kind of confidence that enables one to engage in a career day to day knowing that by working on the true dreams of the heart, there would be a success. One reads of it often: the individual who, toiling away by night and early morning, achieves success in a given field and everyone is surprised that someone like "that" could do this.

On one level I understand it: when I feel confident, it's like a high. I feel alive, full of energy, ready to face the world. It's like the feeling you get after a run (only better, in the sense that it doesn't involve sweat). It's probably one of the closest things to the fountain of youth as one gets older, because it's not dependent on physical prowess or looks.

I know that my ultimate bedrock of my confidence comes from Christ, from what He's done on the cross on my behalf and the behalf of all sinners. As He is a promise keeper, I can have confidence that He will keep His promises and that all He promises will come true. My question is how do I translate this into a day to day confidence that will allow me to rise beyond my circumstances, see those goals and talents that He has placed within me, and move towards them?

In writing the above sentance, I see that I used the word promise a lot. Promise. One of the motivational speakers I read talks often of keeping promises to yourself - that in setting a goal you are committing yourself to complete it, making a promise. So often, we are more willing keep our promises to others rather than the promises to ourselves.

So maybe that's a place to start: keep the promises you make to yourself. Believe that as you keep your promises to others, you will keep your promises to yourself.

And then, of course, keep them, as the Primary Promise Keeper has kept His.