Be confident and know that God is with you, supporting you and cheering you on.
In a time of prayer recently I saw a picture in my mind of a person playing a team sport. In my picture the sport was hockey, which is very fitting for the Christmas season in Canada as colder weather is now here, but the sport is not the key part. Any sport where you shoot on a net, soccer, basketball, etc. would work for this picture if that’s more your thing. From my viewpoint as a spectator of the game the person was obviously skilled and had the ability to get around the other players and get to the goal. Yet every time this person went up to a player to make a break past them for a goal they either backed off or got slowed down or stopped still by the other team. They were never able to come anywhere close to attempting a shot at the net. It was frustrating to watch as a spectator, knowing the person was capable and yet just not seeming to perform anywhere near their best level. I asked God what all this meant and heard that not being confident can rob us from not just succeeding, but even making an attempt to succeed.
Putting sports psychology aside; I think it was a picture for us as everyday people. God looks at you and thinks you’re talented, gifted, incredibly capable and have so much ability. You are after all created in his image. Yet I know I don’t always feel that way and probably even outright forget that from time to time.
In my picture it wasn’t that if the person had always been confident in their abilities they’d always get around other players and get goals. They were still bound to miss and get stopped a lot of the time. It was that they were just being stopped so far away from the net that it wasn’t progress. They were playing well below their level and it was very hard for them to know why.
Maybe you need a boost of confidence today. Take a step back and ask God how he sees you. Read some scriptures about who God says you are or just pray and ask him. It can be hard to believe sometimes what God thinks our abilities are, but know that God is right there cheering us on every step of the way.
If you want to go deeper, read Philippians 1:3-11 over a couple of times. Put yourself both in the mindset of the writer, thinking about writing this letter to another group, and also in the mindset of the receiver of the letter, of having someone write this to you.
Written by Geoff Williams
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