Confidence

Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh

About three years ago, I was looking at an article that highlighted the success of an NFL running back. One of the pictures showed the man with his biceps flexed in the classic look at my muscles beach pose. The man arrogantly was looking and smiling at one of his huge arms as if to say "Look at how awesome I am." There was a tattoo on his left bicep that said it all. It read, "Self made". The story revealed the ups and downs of his troubled past, and his ability to over come all the odds. He was at a high point when the article was written, so everything was all smiles and positive. Since then, the "self made man" has slipped quite a bit and it is only a matter of time before he fades in to obscurity.

Paul is describing the confidence point of men and women and faith when he says we worship by the spirit and glory in Christ. He says in effect that Christians have confidence and hope in the Triune God, not themselves or anything man made. This verse cuts across virtually everything that our culture teaches. Even in some Christian circles "self confidence" is fed and nurtured. We are to be fed and nurtured certainly, but the bible isn't attempting to simply retrain our broken and bad habits. Its telling us that our habits, actions and even ourselves must be put to death and born a new by the power of the Holy Spirit. When this happens we actually lose "self confidence" and gain "Christ in us confidence" as we see our frailty and his strength.

This is quite honestly very difficult for us as Americans today. Our culture is steeped with vanity, pride and self advancement which promote and fulfill "fulfill and validate yourself by your actions". As Christians we must guard against this at all cost. We must realize that no matter what we say people around us can observe where our confidence originates and our deepest desires.

So where does your confidence lie? If faith is in full bloom in your life you will be like Paul as he states that all his positions and actions of honor in the flesh he now counts as rubbish (Philippians 3:4-8). He wants to leave confidence in anything other than Christ behind as he wants that one thing worth gaining: Christ!

So as you start the day analyze the power source of your schedule, abilities and strength. Is it Christ?