Have Faith & Be Confident

I have been wrestling some with imperfection this last week. It's made me a bit...quiet. But this morning, I got a great reality check from my favorite spiritual counselor, Joyce Meyer. (If you'd like to watch her whole message today on Confidence, click here! It's very much worth 20+ min of your time!) Something that I know that I know that I know...but still needed to have reiterated one more time:

Do not be condemned by what you're not.  Madame Guyon (paraphrase) - "Even in the choicest saints, God will leave weaknesses, things we will deal with our whole lives, simply so that we constantly have a reminder that we need Him." God uses & chooses weak people on purpose so that His glory may be seen through them. Get your mind off yourself & what you've done wrong; get on with being a blessing to others and be confident in His love. True confidence does not come from perfection; it comes from knowing God is with you. Your mistakes are NO SURPRISE to God. He knew what He was getting in you, and He still adores you!


I've also had faith at the forefront of my mind lately. A now-far away friend (yay, FB connections!) this morning posted as her status Habakkuk 3:17-19, which caught my eye, since it was our sermon topic yesterday. I told her that, and she replied, "Did your Pastor say anything good? Because my fields produce no food, and there are no sheep in my pen and no cattle in my stalls...I need a word. Badly."

How awesome is God, that when I was feeling eh, He not only gave me a word of confidence, but He gave me an opportunity to share with a friend in need! Get your mind off yourself & what you've done wrong; get on with being a blessing to others and be confident in His love.

I shared my Habakkuk 3:17-19 sermon notes:
*Having faith is VICTORY, even if things never change: our earthly life is a flash in the pan, compared to eternity. Faith in Him is worth Heaven, even if our short time on earth doesn't pan out comfortably. He never promised us ease, just that He'd take us Home.
*Having faith IS victory when life seems unfair.
*Faith is the victory of knowing how to stand. (Verse 19)
The times you feel like giving up are the very times you cannot afford to. Success is not solving all of your life's problems; it's having faith even (ESP.) when nothing is "solved" on earth.

I hope that edifies her and gives her a fresh strength to press on, and I'm so thankful for God using her to help get me over my own hump.

One last faith point: yesterday at church, we were given the opportunity to fill out anonymous HIMpossibilities cards from our bulletins - writing down just a couple prayer requests that seem completely IMPOSSIBLE without HIM, things that only God can fix. It's easy for us to say we have faith, but when we see God truly begin to come through on something that is totally HIMpossible, it's almost...embarrassing how shocked we are. I was floored last night when one of my HIMpossibles I wrote down showed a bit of progress, something that has been stagnant for YEARS, and to get that flicker of confirmation? What a blessing...