When you lose your confidence it doesn't feel good.
In fact it can make a lot of other areas not feel good or right as well...
Lost confidence effects your mind, will and emotions.
By definition - it aint good!
So have you lost confidence lately?
Maybe in your career, your marriage or your ministry?
Maybe you have been wrestling with your confidence in God?
My hope is that this little example that has been helping me may also help you...
Around 3 years a go I first hurt my achilles.
As someone who really enjoys running this has been a challenge to me. Not only have I struggled to overcome it, I discovered it had sapped my confidence.
Every time I thought was getting better it wasn't.
Time wasn't healing it.
Resting wasn't healing it.
I decided I had to get over myself and my stubborn pride and visit a physiotherapist.
To be honest I was partly waiting for them to tell me my worst fears were founded. My achilles is not fixable. That maybe due to my age I should hang up my running shoes and take up lawn bowls?
But to my surprise the very opposite happened...
They told me they believe it is fixable. That I can be well again.
All of my sudden I felt my confidence slowly built even as they spoke.
Hope that I could be better and train properly bubbled up again.
I had walked into the clinic without much hope and left with hope rising.
My confidence barometer had started to climb again.
As I thought about all this I was struck by the fact God might be showing me something bigger than my challenge to my confidence, my achilles, to something that could help you and me at the same time.
If you have lost confidence here are 2 things I think you need right now.
Be Honest / Be Humble / Ask for Help
When confidence is low or you feel it is gone, the worst thing to probably do is attempt to rebuild it on your own. On your own you got to this point, with the right help you can rise again.
Put your hand up for help.
Be honest.
Understand that true confidence is not in you on your own.
I have discovered that confidence has come in many areas of my life not just thorough success, even though this makes a huge difference, but through someone else or maybe a few someone's.
If confidence was just a 'you' thing then talk yourself into it...go on!
The more realistic result achiever is to listen to someone who is either better than you, more experienced than you etc.
I went to a physio and they helped me grow in confidence.
Maybe for more personal or spiritual matters you could seek out a leader, a pastor, a trusted friend and even God?
Have you ever meet someone who is mega confident but potentially a bit deluded on their abilities or who they really are? There is mere confidence in themselves which has the potential to tip over to pride.
I am talking today about confidence within that is mastered with something greater from outside us, around us and for us.
...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6 niv
I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Psalm 27:13 niv
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 niv
Something to think about...
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019
21st Birthday
Exert from our Churches 21st Birthday Celebration...
21 years is a sure fine amount of time. And it is truly a significant birthday!
In our culture it is seen as a coming of age. Where someone goes from learning the basics of life and who they are, to stepping into their adulthood.
This birthday illustrates on new season.
Over the last few weeks preparing this day with our amazing team of volunteers, I have had opportunity to reflect.
As I poured over plenty of photos, memories in their various forms, I was struck by 21 years of impact. That impact is reflected in the many hundreds of lives Taupo Elim has been part of.
While a Church may be seen as a place, a sacred venue, a destination for the faithful and the seeker...its impact is a true measure of its value.
We may not be all we dream of right now, but we can be rightly proud of the impact Taupo Elim has made on lives we have had the honour to share our faith with. That impact is growing as we move in to our adult years as a faith family. Our influence is growing with our major event leadership.
We are impacting lives outside the walls of whatever space we meet in.
We have plenty to be thankful and even more to look forward to.
May today be a celebration for you as we come together.
And may you go from this moment looking to see what impact God can have in you, through you and being part of the Taupo Elim story…
Special thanks to Graham & Joy Webb, Stephen & Wendy Whitwell and Mike & Jordan Ford!
Your heart and legacy helped shape us today.
21 years is a sure fine amount of time. And it is truly a significant birthday!
In our culture it is seen as a coming of age. Where someone goes from learning the basics of life and who they are, to stepping into their adulthood.
This birthday illustrates on new season.
Over the last few weeks preparing this day with our amazing team of volunteers, I have had opportunity to reflect.
As I poured over plenty of photos, memories in their various forms, I was struck by 21 years of impact. That impact is reflected in the many hundreds of lives Taupo Elim has been part of.
While a Church may be seen as a place, a sacred venue, a destination for the faithful and the seeker...its impact is a true measure of its value.
We may not be all we dream of right now, but we can be rightly proud of the impact Taupo Elim has made on lives we have had the honour to share our faith with. That impact is growing as we move in to our adult years as a faith family. Our influence is growing with our major event leadership.
We are impacting lives outside the walls of whatever space we meet in.
We have plenty to be thankful and even more to look forward to.
May today be a celebration for you as we come together.
And may you go from this moment looking to see what impact God can have in you, through you and being part of the Taupo Elim story…
Special thanks to Graham & Joy Webb, Stephen & Wendy Whitwell and Mike & Jordan Ford!
Your heart and legacy helped shape us today.
Monday, March 18, 2019
Love Never Forces
Can I be honest with you?
I sometimes am a little tired of people simply reciting the famous love chapter in the Bible...
If you are not familiar with it, you can check out in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. It simply to cool to just read through like a poem by some long dead writer!
It famously starts off by telling us what love isn't and then what love is.
I would encourage you to take your time reading every last word and meditating on the whole cool package it portrays.
Something occurred to me recently after pondering our world and how it is currently behaving and responding. Something I gravitated to while thinking about that in light of the "love chapter".
Love never forces.
Real love doesn't need to, because real love impacts everyone without the effort to make it such.
As a teenager most of us learn this the hard way.
We are attracted to someone and take our first stumbling bumbling steps towards what we think is the first and last true love of our loves. At some point one of you tries just too hard to make love happen.
When it fails, like it has for us all, I hear people ask what they did wrong, like they didn't try hard enough. You simply can't force love.
Right now our world needs real love, the love from the "love chapter".
Not love from the love boat or the love doctor.
It needs good old fashioned Biblical based love that can change any heart and change any situation.
We can't force it but we can surely express it...
Can I encourage you to read it and pray about how you can apply it to your place and space?
Something to think about...
I sometimes am a little tired of people simply reciting the famous love chapter in the Bible...
If you are not familiar with it, you can check out in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. It simply to cool to just read through like a poem by some long dead writer!
It famously starts off by telling us what love isn't and then what love is.
I would encourage you to take your time reading every last word and meditating on the whole cool package it portrays.
Something occurred to me recently after pondering our world and how it is currently behaving and responding. Something I gravitated to while thinking about that in light of the "love chapter".
Love never forces.
Real love doesn't need to, because real love impacts everyone without the effort to make it such.
As a teenager most of us learn this the hard way.
We are attracted to someone and take our first stumbling bumbling steps towards what we think is the first and last true love of our loves. At some point one of you tries just too hard to make love happen.
When it fails, like it has for us all, I hear people ask what they did wrong, like they didn't try hard enough. You simply can't force love.
Right now our world needs real love, the love from the "love chapter".
Not love from the love boat or the love doctor.
It needs good old fashioned Biblical based love that can change any heart and change any situation.
We can't force it but we can surely express it...
Can I encourage you to read it and pray about how you can apply it to your place and space?
Something to think about...
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Conflict
One of the areas of life many of us want to avoid is conflict.
It feels yucky and scary. There is also sometimes the uncertainty of what will be the outcome. Will things be better or worse?
When I consider trying to live my life for cause of Christ, there are definitely moments where conflicts occur. Sometimes battles that rage within privately, sometimes when we clash with others.
Jesus faced His conflicts head on with Grace & Truth.
Whether confronting the issues and struggles the disciples had, dealing with religious and manipulative people, the conflict for our souls…Jesus dealt with it all.
Without His passion to do the right thing for us we would be very very lost still.
If you are facing conflict keep your heart drawn to Jesus.
Seek Him for any and every move you make.
Let God do a work in you and those you have conflict with.
Don’t run from conflict but let the Spirit of God lead you to handle it well.
Finally why not copy Jesus attitude?
Have a passion to do the right thing and never a revenge thing...
Something to think about...
It feels yucky and scary. There is also sometimes the uncertainty of what will be the outcome. Will things be better or worse?
When I consider trying to live my life for cause of Christ, there are definitely moments where conflicts occur. Sometimes battles that rage within privately, sometimes when we clash with others.
Jesus faced His conflicts head on with Grace & Truth.
Whether confronting the issues and struggles the disciples had, dealing with religious and manipulative people, the conflict for our souls…Jesus dealt with it all.
Without His passion to do the right thing for us we would be very very lost still.
If you are facing conflict keep your heart drawn to Jesus.
Seek Him for any and every move you make.
Let God do a work in you and those you have conflict with.
Don’t run from conflict but let the Spirit of God lead you to handle it well.
Finally why not copy Jesus attitude?
Have a passion to do the right thing and never a revenge thing...
Something to think about...
Tuesday, March 05, 2019
WAHOO!
Regularly I hear two sounds when I am outside our house.
The flutter of parachute canopies opening and lots of wahoo!
We live very close to an airport and the skydive drop-zone.
When I heard it again this week it got me thinking...
Most of us want our faith to have wahoo in it.
Wahoo is a measure for excitement expressed through a vocal outburst. Something you don't want to hold back from uttering because it reflects just how excited you are.
The last thing I want for myself or for you is our faith to be boring.
There needs to many moments of wahoo over your faith journey!
Which got me thinking - how do you have them?
How do you make sure there is wahoo?
Very simply, one key guarantees wahoo for you!
Stepping out in faith by doing something that scares you.
When you jump out a plane doing a tandem skydive you are both excited and scared at the same time. Trust me in this, I have experienced it for myself.
You have faith in your jump master who you are attached to.
You have faith in their faith that the chute will open just as planned.
There is always faith and a little bit of scared.
If you are looking for wahoo right now can I make a few suggestions for you?
Instead of attending a Church, actually be the Church.
- Left you hands in worship, really participate!
- Sing with passion
- Give generously
- Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you all the way through the service and especially the teaching time
- Find someone to talk to after the service time closes
Trust me, if you actually engage completely there will be a wahoo for you.
Instead of looking at the world around you, be engaged with the world around you.
Do you know someone who is unwell or going through a tough time, why not offer to pray for them? Sure they might say no, but will more than likely say yes.
And how much wahoo would there be when God does a miracle?
Do you know someone who is lost? - offer them Jesus in a way they can relate to.
Yours and their wahoo is waiting just around the corner.
We all are little scared at times, but when you add faith you ultimately get the wahoo!
Something to think about...
The flutter of parachute canopies opening and lots of wahoo!
We live very close to an airport and the skydive drop-zone.
When I heard it again this week it got me thinking...
Most of us want our faith to have wahoo in it.
Wahoo is a measure for excitement expressed through a vocal outburst. Something you don't want to hold back from uttering because it reflects just how excited you are.
The last thing I want for myself or for you is our faith to be boring.
There needs to many moments of wahoo over your faith journey!
Which got me thinking - how do you have them?
How do you make sure there is wahoo?
Very simply, one key guarantees wahoo for you!
Stepping out in faith by doing something that scares you.
When you jump out a plane doing a tandem skydive you are both excited and scared at the same time. Trust me in this, I have experienced it for myself.
You have faith in your jump master who you are attached to.
You have faith in their faith that the chute will open just as planned.
There is always faith and a little bit of scared.
If you are looking for wahoo right now can I make a few suggestions for you?
Instead of attending a Church, actually be the Church.
- Left you hands in worship, really participate!
- Sing with passion
- Give generously
- Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you all the way through the service and especially the teaching time
- Find someone to talk to after the service time closes
Trust me, if you actually engage completely there will be a wahoo for you.
Instead of looking at the world around you, be engaged with the world around you.
Do you know someone who is unwell or going through a tough time, why not offer to pray for them? Sure they might say no, but will more than likely say yes.
And how much wahoo would there be when God does a miracle?
Do you know someone who is lost? - offer them Jesus in a way they can relate to.
Yours and their wahoo is waiting just around the corner.
We all are little scared at times, but when you add faith you ultimately get the wahoo!
Something to think about...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)