CONFIDENCE

A couple of years back i saw a young man on a live TV show who was describing how he rose spectacularly from grass to grace in a brief period of time. During the program he announced an upcoming success seminar which he had organized, there he promised to share the secret of his success. Trust Nigerians, many people quickly paid to enroll for the seminar as expected and I also registered as well.

On the seminar day, the hall was packed full (tell me who doesn't want to succeed afterall). After taking time to tell us a fascinating story of his life and how he rose to be who he was then, he was ready to divulge the 'secret'. Everyone listened with rapt attention, I can literarily feel that atmosphere was tensed with suspense, those who brought out their pen motioned to capture the secret on paper immediately, some people at this point had put on the recorder on their  phones. In short we were all ears, ever so ready to grab and run off with this powerful secret that transformed the life of this young man.

This man happened to be one of those speakers who derive joy in suspense(lol), so our young multimillionaire further heightened our suspense, with some delay tactics, a little bit of digression, some motivation, more testimonies of his millions and then he finally said it... Yes he eventually divulged the precious information we have all been expecting. And this is what he said was the secret of his success...            
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CONFIDENCE.

As simple as it may sound, Confidence is a critical component in the success equation that even God himself reckons with it. It is a success prerequisite and indeed forms one of the criteria for success. Let's quickly draw some inference from the Bible.

Remember the popular story of the twelve spies who gave a report about the land of promise which God gave them, recall that there were two factions of ten against two when the report was rendered? And the difference between the two sides was simply CONFIDENCE or the lack of it.

When he took over from Moses, Joshua was admonished and instructed several times by God  that in order for him to be truly successful, he must remain courageous (Confident). Jesus knew that upon his exit, His disciple would not be able to continue the work of the gospel to do lack of confidence, because when Jesus the source of their confidence had ascended on high, they've all gone into hiding. This was why he particularly told them to wait in Jerusalem until they are endued with power of the Holy Spirit, then they can and will have that confidence enough to be witnesses of Him throughout the whole world. No wonder one the first thing that people perceived about the disciples after the baptism of the Holy Spirit was their boldness (confidence).

Even in our age you would agree with me that people would rather do business with someone who is confident, employers prefer confident employees, ladies would rather date a confident man... Importance of confidence cannot be over emphasized. In the journey of success you can't afford to leave home without CONFIDENCE.

What is confidence? and how can one gain this confidence?

Confidence is a deep rooted feeling of assurance in something, someone, a system or an ideology. The Oxford dictionary defines confidence as being certain of one's abilities or having trust or faith in people, plans or future.
Another word for confidence is trust, faith or assurance.

So how can one get this confidence?

Confidence can be gotten in two ways or better stated, confidence is of two types; Acquired Confidence and Developed Confidence.

As the name implies Acquired confidence is the confidence that that is gotten from another source; which can be someone, system, something or from an ideology. In order words this confidence is not something you worked at but simply gotten from another source where it has already been worked for. A unique feature of acquired Confidence is that it dies or waynes off immediately the external source from where it was acquired doesn't exist again, or faulted or compromised or proven wrong but it's relatively easy and quick to obtain.

For instance when you gain confidence because of a message you heard, a book you read, a promise from someone, a testimony you heard or witnessed from someone, the effectiveness and efficiency of a system etc. That type of confidence can be categorised as acquired Confidence because it is totally reliant on the source it was gotten from and it feasles out or reduce drastically if the source is tampered with or no longer there.

If someone's confidence is based on a rich uncle or a rich parent and peradventure something happens to that the uncle or parent passes on, that confidence will surely be affected and fear might set in. Fear is the opposite of confidence.

If the confidence is based on a theory or ideology which is later proven wrong, then that confidence will surely feasle out. There was a time it was believed that the earth is flat, but this theory was later proven otherwise. Anyone having Confidence in the previous theory ceases to do so automatically on this realization.

Acquired Confidence is good and easy to gain but the the source of that Confidence matters a lot. Because all it takes to destroy such confidence no matter how great it is, is to take away the source or destroy the source. No wonder the Bible says "put not your trust (confidence) in man whose breath is in his nostrils" (Is.2:22 NIV). Three main reasons why one should not build his confidence totally in man; Man is limited, Man is fallible and Man can die.
Man as a source of confidence is prone to these three things. Some people built their business around a government policy and are totally dependent on it. But the day government decides to change the policy will also mark the end of that business. Talking of Acquired Confidence.

Acquired Confidence is not being discouraged  as we cannot do without it and we need  it from time to time. It is the acquired  Confidence that makes us to trust in God and His word for instance. It's a good type of confidence which comes by trusting and believing in the source. Therefore the source of an acquired confidence should be verified and assessed so as to know what level of confidence one can repose in such.

The second type of confidence is Developed confidence and this is the type of confidence that is born out of personal development, competence or personal experience. It's something we work at to build overtime, by learning, training, apprenticeship etc. and iyalready become a part of you. It does not depend on any external source.

This confidence is innate. An experienced engineer that has worked on solving a particular problem over the 10 years cannot fret or jitter if he has to solve that same problem again, even in a new environment.

They brought someone possessed with a demon to Jesus and Jesus casted the demon out immediately but his disciples could not before then. So they asked him "why could we not cast him out and Jesus answered and said because of your unbelief (acquired confidence which was shaken at that point) then he said further this type does not go except by prayer and fasting (personal spiritual development).

Developed confidence can also be referred to as self confidence it's a confidence that the source is within the person not externally dependent. That is why some training are priced high because once you perfect the skill it becomes part of you as long as you do it. Developed confidence seems more stable than acquired confidence and cannot be easily affected like acquired one. However it has its own downside as well.

If developed confidence is not well managed it can breed arrogance, pride and over confidence. Because you know something well enough or very good at a particular thing can lead to overbloated ego and as you know pride goes before a fall. Samson is a good example because of his gift and innate ability that God gave him he got intoxicated with his power and refused divine instructions which later became his downfall.

To be truly successful and last therein, there must be a combination of acquired and developed confidence. It takes the the two to build a lasting success, having only one type is a lopsided confidence and the consequence will soon catch up.
David was someone who demonstrated the combination of these two types of confidence and therefore one of the most successful king. While he relied totally on God (acquired Confidence) he was also very skilful at what he does and surrounded himself other exceptionally competent people during his period of reign as the king of Israel.

When David brought down Goliath he used these two types of confidence to finish Goliath. His dependence on God to give him victory and his own competence through his experience and skill (sling shot) to take the giant down.

I had a friend who went for an interview at a time but was not selected despite the fact that he was almost the best candidate for the job. Why? No not for lack of confidence, he was a very confident guy, but rather his confidence was lopsided; a one way confidence which was entirely based on his competence (developed confidence). So he was perceived as being arrogant and proud therefore he couldn't get the job. He learnt his lessons and quickly balanced his Confidence quotient which made him to secure a job the next opportunity.

So you see brethren, confidence is critical to success but it must be well balanced. Acquired confidence alone is just like faith without works. It's like a student that believes God will make him to pass examination without studying, his confidence will definitely fail him in the day of exam. Also developed Confidence alone is equally not suitable because it breeds pride and arrogance; ask King Nebuchadnezzar.

2Pt.1:5-8 "add to your faith virtue..." It takes more than our acquired confidence of only faith to all round success, he said "add to your faith..".  It's more like add to your acquired confidence, developed confidence (competence).

However these two types of confidence have similarity in building them, which is practice or repetition. It takes constant practice or repetition to build both the acquired and developed confidence. Rom. 10 " so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God".
Likewise Heb 5:14 "But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
So hearing in Rom.10:17 signifies continuous hearing to build our faith or acquired confidence. While the phrase by the reason of use implies constant practice.

Therefore in order to build these two types of confidence, practice is paramount, the more you practice the more you increase the level of your confidence.

By acquiring and developing our confidence path to our success in life, career, ministry and  family is clearer and sure. You shall succeed in Jesus name. Amen.

Selah.