From Knowing to Believing
I thought it might be a good time to share with you all how I came up with the name Confident Thoughts for this blog. I always thought I would come up with this really witty name that just appeared to me one day – lol! Not so much. This name came from some time with the Lord where I really felt challenged – almost as if God was calling me out. You ever have those moments? They are not my favorite. But it’s usually in those moments where change really begins to come.
Things had been going well for me. I felt stronger and had quite a few good months strung together. Then I happened to have a tough weekend. A weekend where I felt discouraged and anxious. A weekend where I felt as if I was back at the beginning, fighting with everything I had again. It can be easy to instantly forget how far God has brought you when you have a moment of discouragement or in my case, an anxious weekend. I immediately had to remind myself of how far God had brought me over the past year and not to let a discouraging weekend allow me to spiral.
In spending time with the Lord, I was brought to a passage in James.
James 1:5-8 NLT
5 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”
I don’t know about any of you, but the book of James is a REALLY stretching book for me – haha! When I read this, it really challenged me to look inward and ask myself some questions. I say all the time that I know what God can do. That he can touch my body, that he can set me free from things like fear, anxiety, etc. And in my prayer time I ask the Lord for these things! But as I read this passage, I said to myself, “Do I actually believe that the Lord can touch my body? Do I really believe that He can set me free from things like anxiety and panic attacks?” I can believe for someone else’s healing and victory all day long! Absolutely! I can have all the faith in the world for other people, but when it comes to myself, if I’m being truthful, I don’t think my faith is there. Why is that? Do I feel unworthy or undeserving? Am I trying to maintain control and find my peace in worldly help? Do I just feel like it’s one of those scenarios of “it won’t happen to me?”
I felt the nudge from the Lord to look up what “to know” and “to believe” mean according to the dictionary. We can use these words interchangeably but honestly, they have very different meanings. To know means to understand and to perceive something as true. But to believe means to have confidence in such truth. I understand what the bible tells us the Lord can do, but do I believe in my heart of hearts with full confidence? Well, that might be an entirely different answer if I am to really dig deep and reflect.
Then I thought, what brings about confidence? Confidence is built on accomplishment - on success after success. How do we build our confidence in what we know the Lord can do? We remind ourselves of all He has done! You guys, the Bible is FULL of so many good things the Lord has done! And not even that, but in our own lives! I felt the Lord so strongly nudge me to reflect and remember all the good things He has done in my life, in His word, and even in other people’s lives around me. Study it, meditate on it, let it build your faith and your confidence! I pray that as we begin to do that, we won’t just know what God can do, but we will believe it with full confidence! I’m praying that this revelation in my thinking will be the key to change and growth. The key to truly believing in my heart of hearts that God can do what he says he can do – especially in my life! This sort of confidence is what is going to bring about real change.
After that revelation with the Lord, I knew that my blog title had to contain the word confident. That word is going to be my anthem this year. Confidence in everything I do! Confidence in God’s truth, confidence in moving forward, confidence in using my gifts for His glory, confidence in my mind and the way I think, confidence to lead people to Jesus, confidence in how I raise my children and love my husband, and confidence in who I am in Jesus.
Growing from knowing to believing,
