Are You Confident In God?

Priorities matter. Formed from the word “prior,” our priorities are things we say come first, ahead of other things. They are highest or higher in importance. Our priorities should get our best or first time, talents, resources, and the like.

Maybe one of the most important things parents must do is choose their priorities. When we don’t, we go where the wind blows us. We react. We don’t act. We respond. We don’t plan. When I do this with life in general, I’m shocked at where my time has gone. Parenting and children matter too much to allow things to just happen.

Increasing children’s confidence in God should be a priority. Do you want them to call out to Him in prayer? They must be confident in who He is and what He can do. Do you want them to care about and read God’s Word? They need to believe reading it matters because God matters. Right?

Tell children why you’re confident in God. Share your experiences. Tell them what you do that increases your confidence. Share regularly and intentionally.

Ask others what they do. We’re all different and that includes how we relate to God and grow in our knowledge of Him, love for Him, and reliance on Him. Your children may relate better to a relative’s or friend’s experiences. That’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. Teens especially benefit from having adults in addition to their parents to relate to.

My confidence in God grows when I read the Bible and realize I’ve experienced what I read about. It might be an attribute of God or any number of truths about His creation, people, or how the world works.

My confidence grows when I realize God answered prayers for me and others in the ways that are best – even if it was a “no” when I thought a “yes” would be best. My confidence grows when I hear stories from others about God’s goodness.

When I’ve needed direction from God and He provides it, my confidence grows. This is especially true when I look back and realize all the ways He was intentional and involved in my experiences. This might be the biggest confidence builder for me.

What about you? What can you realize about your confidence in God? What can you tell and teach your children?

A Facebook Survey About Being Confident in God

To give you some ideas, I posted a question on Facebook. The answers here will inspire you. I left in the redundancies because they’re interesting. And, every answer is here that I received in the first hour, whether I thought it was important or not. It’s not my place to judge someone’s way of knowing they’re confident in God.

• People loving me unconditionally
• Looking at His record….looking at my past circumstances and seeing all the ways He brought me through. He hasn’t left me yet.
• Answered prayers
• Seeing Him in others
• Reading His word.
• Sensing HIS presence.
• His Word
• Answered prayer. Sending people my way who have walked my journey. They are able to give calm reassuring advice filled with wisdom on parenting our teens. I feel that this is God loving me through these precious people and that increases my confidence in Him.
• My confidence is maxed out in his provision of Jesus in my place.
• Reading His word!
• Feeling His undeniable presence in my darkest moments
• I would have to say the tough seasons that He brings me through. At least in my own experience that’s what’s boosted my confidence in Him.
• Hagiography
• Seeing prayers answered in ways I couldn’t have imagined
• Obedience when my flesh so wants to do the opposite. After the obedience, I see His blessings.
• Community
• His faithfulness!
• Remembering His faithfulness!
• God always came through, but I often didn’t realize it till later.
• Psalm 136
• The blessings in my life that I know are his work. Staying immersed in his word.
• Hearing the Stories of transformation in others. “If God can do THAT with them, could he not also do that with me?”
• That is a tough one, I grew up with a family that Fully Relied on God and it is so woven into my DNA I cannot imagine not trusting Him. So I guess my answer would be seeing his providence all my life, we never needed anything, He always provided.
• He picked and is molding me.
• Helping others and seeing God work in their lives.
• His subtle promptings that guide me in prayer and action.
• Spending time reading his word!
• Taking the time to count my blessings and see how He is working in my life and in the lives of those around me.
• My students
• Creation & testimonies
• Seeing His guiding hand in daily circumstances.
• I love hearing testimonies.
• Recounting times when He came through for me in ways I could have never imagined – that reminds me how absolutely faithful He is.
• Who He says in His Word that He has been and always will be!
  Almighty
  Everlasting Father
  Holy
  Love
  Living Water
  Life
  Strong tower
  Redeemer
• Being reminded of His faithfulness in the past and seeing His faithfulness in my life and others now.
• Community with my small group, prayer, worship music.
• Listening to music that spoke to my heart when I was first saved brings my heart back to remembering who He is and how I still trust Him.
• When he tells me through my friends at church just how much love he has for me
• Spending time with Him in his word!!
• Seeing answered prayers.
• Looking back and seeing the many ways he has cared for me and my loved ones.
• Experience with God. Recognizing how He has taken care of me in the past gives me confidence that He will continue in the future.
• Seeing Him working in my life and hearing how He is working in the lives of others. Love hearing people’s testimonies!
• His Word, that is truly living and active. He uses it to grow my knowledge, and that blesses me with an unshakeable faith.
• Time and experiences where I get to watch firsthand how He is so faithful. Even in the little things! He knows who he is working with so well! And loves me enough to provide just what I need to get me through the difficult times and just what I need to grow me.
• His Word
• When out of nowhere he provides.
• When I read His word!
• I have more trust when people don’t act in ways that seem to be codependent on God attempting to cover up the mysteries and the many places where there are no answers. I don’t like hearing “ Well, God’s ways aren’t our ways.” It is not helpful for me to hear fake God news because I so often know what’s underneath. Living in uncertainty is hard, but more authentic. This helps me to have more trust.
• Nature! Beauty in nature. And science…God designed everything to grow, live, breathe and be beautiful. He couldn’t have designed it more perfectly for us. That gives me confidence in his ultimate knowledge and authority!
• Recalling all the amazing things God has done for me and others I know around me.
• Him being with me in good and bad times. When I’m upset I know I can always lean on my lord, because I know he is right beside me all the time. I have seen with my own eyes my lord perform a miracle. My lord is so amazing. He is my everything.
• Looking back at His faithfulness and hearing stories of faithfulness passed down from family and friends. 🙂
• Wow, reading all these replies is like going to Church and hearing the Word preached! It’s awesome!
• I’d say that when He does something that I know absolutely comes from Him increases my confidence.
• Testimonies and answered prayer
• His faithfulness when I don’t deserve it
• When the Lord places just the teaching , worship songs, and just the right person (s) at just the right time with just the right words that speaks volumes of truth to my weary soul.
• Studying the Word in order to know Christ, the “visible image of the invisible God.”
• His faithfulness during my (2) cancer journeys.
• When He ‘shows up’ when I least expect it.
• Prayer increases my confidence in Him. Immersing in His word, especially the old testament and Psalms reminds me he is the God of His promises.
• His “Unfailing Love!”
• Community – When I am vulnerable with those God has placed in my life I have found that someone has usually have gone through the same things I am currently struggling with. Their testimony stands as a declaration of God’s faithfulness that I can grasp on to in the here and now.
• Testimonies, answered prayer, and I have seen miracles.
• Lately, justice. We are leaving very hard times and sometimes seems that the devil is winning. Seeing God’s justice gives me confidence that he has won already and even though I don’t see his work , doesn’t mean that he’s not working. God is working, but do we really let him work in our hearts?
• Tracking/recording God’s FAITHFULNESS.
• Receiving prophetic word.
• Studying the Bible/knowing His Word increases my confidence in God.

Let me ask again. What about you? Why are you confident in God? What can you tell and teach your children?

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Come back on Monday when I’ll expand on this idea of helping our children gain confidence in God. Earlier this month, I wrote about parenting by faith, parenting with grace and mercy, and prioritizing forgiveness. You might want to read those posts if you haven’t. They’re related to what I wrote about today. God bless you as you put these ideas into practice.