How Do We Build Confidence
[ Preached by Pastor Kenneth Chin at Acts Ampang, Malaysia – 31 July 2016 ]
Read Matthew 8:5-10, Matthew 14:22-33
We are not living the best of our lives because we are lacking confidence.
God gave us confidence from the day we were born.
A child is born full of boldness and only loses that because adults introduces fear to the child. As we grow up, that confidence is slowly stolen away from us because of the years of experience and people telling us that there are some things that simply cannot be done.
At times, we may even been given the opportunity to do or to pursue something incredible, but we choose to back out of it because of the lack of confidence.
So how do we build and gain back our confidence?
Faith at Taking Risks
Past failures (if they are to be seen as failures) should not stop you from pursuing what God has put on your heart.
The difference between you and a successful person is the fact that a successful person is confident. A successful person practices and repeats what he has done which grows his confidence and he is therefore no longer afraid of taking risks.
When Jesus called Peter out of the boat to walk on water towards Him, the eleven other disciples remained in the boat. The majority of the church today choose to take the safest path as did the eleven disciples when in fact we should do as Peter did and take the risk to walk on water.
“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
To take risk is also to have taken faith.
Knowing from Taking Risks
When Peter took the risk, he sank into the water after a few steps, Jesus picked him up again and asked Peter why he doubted. After saying yes to risk, we might still encounter failures, mistakes and have a shaky confidence, but we keep learning as we increased in knowledge.
Jesus always spoke with authority and confidence because He knew and had continuous confidence in the LORD.
Daniel 11:32 reads, “… the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
From Matthew 8:5-10, we not only see Jesus’ confidence in healing the centurion’s servant, we also capture the centurion’s confidence in Jesus, that He will heal his servant by merely speaking the healing over the servant from a distance.
Only by trying, doing and practicing that we can know more and increase confidence. Confidence comes from saying yes above doubts and fears, and also the experiences of knowing that the Lord is with us.
Lastly, despite a strong confidence that will propel you forward, it is not enough to guarantee that you will get what you want. In the end, knowing God’s Will is sovereign leaves us confidently submissive to Him!