The first thing we say when we introduce ourselves is “I am.” We say our names, our occupations, and anything else that communicates who we are. The problem is, we tend to misidentify ourselves. Who we are is not determined by what we do, but rather by to whom we belong. Join Natalie Grant and Charlotte Gambill as they share how to live with God-sized confidence.
Dare To Be
Day 1
Scriptures: Luke 10:20, Romans 8:37, Philippians 4:13, 1 John 4:4
Thinking Much Of Ourselves
We all know people who, after reaching some measure of success, walk around confidently like their achievements give them a platform that elevates them higher than the rest of us. Or maybe we view personal success as something we need to obtain before we ourselves can walk in confidence. The truth is, the only level of success that brings unshakable confidence is the victory we have in Christ, and that’s not anything we can achieve by ourselves. Boasting about what we are able to do on our own inevitably leads to our downfall. But when we boast about what we are able to do in spite of ourselves, God gets all the glory. Sometimes, in the name of humility, we lean too much toward not boasting at all, but what’s the point of God doing something miraculous through us if we aren’t going to testify about it?
Scripture tells us over and over what our significance is in Christ. As children of God, we have His Spirit living in us, who equips us with direct access to the mind of God and His power. The One who lives within us is greater than the one who lives in the world. We can do anything by the strength of Christ living in us. We can cast out demons, heal the sick, and prophesy over situations that are dead or broken, speaking life into them again. That’s amazing!
At some point, we have to talk about what we’re able to do by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us because other people will notice and start to ask questions. The key is to not claim that power is from ourselves, or feed into the excitement about what we’re able to do. In Luke 10, Jesus’ disciples had just returned from being sent out by Jesus to minister, and they were in awe of how the demons had submitted to them in the name of Jesus. It can often feel the same way for us when we’re able to do something beyond what we could have done on our own. We want to shout it from the rooftops! But verse 20 reminds us that even though we have the authority to do miraculous things, the really exciting thing is not what we can do but what that means about who we are in Christ.
Our names are written in heaven. God knows who we are. He created us specifically and chooses to live in us and invite us into His work. He pours out His love and His power through us. No other living creature can say that! It’s an incredible honor that we should be excited about and always point back to. When we have godly self-confidence, it means we stand in our true identity as a child of God and walk in the authority He has given us by the power of the Holy Spirit. That gives us freedom to move and speak boldly, all while pointing to Jesus and bringing glory to the Father.
Day 2
Scriptures: Numbers 13:33, Proverbs 18:21, James 3:3-5
Traveling By Word
When something awful, confusing, or disappointing happens, the first thing we want to do is talk about it. We want to lay out our complaints to our friends, or to anyone else who will listen, in order to hear their confirmation that we’re justified in how we feel. We think that helps us feel better, but actually it keeps us stuck. We don’t move forward when all we do is confirm over and over again that this horrible thing is worthy of whatever we are feeling. It feels good to have others sympathize with us, but that gets stale when we don’t eventually move from where we are. At some point, we must change how we’re talking about a situation if we want to move forward and out of it.
Proverbs 18:21 tells us that the tongue has the power of life and death. That means the words we’re speaking about a situation have the power to bring life or death to it. This matters for those around us who are listening, but the second half of this verse reminds us that it matters for us too. We hear what we say, and we eat the fruit of our words. When we speak life, we experience life. When we speak death, we experience death.
It might seem small, but our words have power like a bit has in a horse’s mouth or a rudder has on a ship. They have the power to shift massive things in a different direction. In Numbers 13, we read about twelve men who went to scout out the land God had promised to give the Israelites. The land was flowing with milk and honey and had good fruit, but the cities were powerfully fortified and the people were intimidating. In spite of this opposition, two men came back full of confidence that, since God was with them, they could take the land. The ten other men, however, focused on the much bigger people who lived there. Their words described how big the enemy was in comparison to themselves, but made no acknowledgement to the greatness of God. Two men spoke life and ten men spoke death. In the end, the men who showed contempt for God and spoke death were not able to enter the land. But the two men who were confident in God and spoke life, did enter the land. We might not be able to see the direct connection or the impact of our words right away, but they do determine what’s to come.
Is there a situation in which you feel stuck right now? How are you talking about it to those around you? The next time someone asks you about it, be honest about what’s happening, but be sure to include how you’re confident things will turn up because God is with you.
Day 3
Scriptures: Matthew 6:10, Matthew 7:7, James 4:2-3
The Posture Of Prayer.
Can you imagine meeting up with a friend on a regular basis and only asking her to do things for you? For her, that would be an awful experience . She’s your friend, not your assistant! Normally, when you get together with a friend, you both get to speak. You work together to move the conversation forward, and to help each other move forward in life. Maybe you share first and tell her what’s been going on in your life, mentioning what you need, but then she gets a chance to share her life and needs. It’s much the same way when we come to God in prayer. He absolutely wants to hear what’s on our hearts, but He also wants us to become part of what He is doing.
Jesus tells us multiple times that we can ask for anything in His name and it will be done for us. This indicates that we definitely should be asking for things, and that we can do so with confidence. However, James 4 calls us out, not just for how we sometimes don’t ask, but also for how we often ask with wrong motives. Too often, we take what Jesus says about asking and turn it into a genie situation, where we think our wish is God’s command. When things feel challenging, uncomfortable, or we think we need something we don’t have, more often than not, what’s happening is that we’re either not asking for something, or we need to realign our hearts with His will.
When Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray in Matthew 6, He tells them to pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (v. 10). When we ask God for things, we should really be asking for what lines up with these statements. That means, what we want should line up with what He wants and with what will help usher in His kingdom on earth. Also, when we ask a friend for help, it should be something that’s within their power to do. The same is true with God. He cannot do anything outside of His own character. We have to lean in and know who He is when we present our requests to Him.
Prayer is also an opportunity to partner with God in what He is doing. We like to say that a good pattern to follow in prayer is to first ask for what we need from God, and then to ask for seed from God to sow into His kingdom. When we’re not asking for either of those things, it’s a good gauge to know if we’re just being greedy. If it’s not something we need and it’s not something we can sow into someone else’s life, it’s likely coming from a place of selfish ambition. It’s okay to ask God for what we need, but we also need to remember to ask Him how we can be part of what He’s doing.
God already knows what you need before you even ask for it. But do you know what He is asking you for? Spend a few minutes asking God to give you seed to sow into His kingdom.
Day 4
Scriptures: Psalms 107:1, Matthew 7:11, 2 Timothy 2:13
Remember Who God Is
Most of our prayers involve asking God who He is, where He is, or for something we need. He loves it when we come to Him with everything and lay it at His feet. He wants to hear our hearts, our honesty, and our questions. He invites us to approach His throne with boldness. But one of the best things we can do in order to remember who we are in Christ is to remember who God is. We can certainly bring all of our stuff to Him, but when we take a moment to stop talking about us, and simply declare who He is, it reminds us that He is who He says He is. In spite of whatever our circumstances may look like, God is unchanging. The God we read about in scripture is the same God we encounter today. We aren’t making up claims when we’re repeating who He is in the midst of a situation where it seems like He might not be.
God is good. There is no shortage of scripture declaring the goodness of God. The Bible doesn’t just speak of the good things He has done, but it calls Him good. In the midst of a situation that seems like He might not be working in our favor, we can confidently declare that He is good. We can trust He is moving on our behalf because that’s who He is.
God is generous. Matthew 7:11 compares earthly fathers to our Father in heaven, and in spite of how our earthly father may have treated us, this verse makes it clear that our Father in heaven will pour out much more than our earthly fathers do. When we feel like God might be withholding from us, we can remember and declare that our God is generous.
God is faithful. God cannot behave outside of His own character. That means He must do good because He is good. And He must be faithful because that’s who He is. While we try to keep our promise to love and trust Him always, our human nature leads us to wander, to doubt, and to fear at times. Even though we may be unfaithful to Him, God remains faithful to us.
There are countless things we could say about who God is. Pick out any story in scripture and pull out the truth of who He is. He hears. He sees. He parts the waters. He makes a way where there is no way. He resurrects. He heals. He loves. He did it then and He will do it again. It’s not because of anything we can do or have done; it’s because of who He is – then, now, and forever.
Set aside some time this week to pray and just declare who God is over your situation. You can bring your worries and your questions, but also bring the truth of who He is, and see how it changes how you approach Him.
Day 5
Scriptures: Genesis 1:27, Exodus 3:14, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
When You Say “I Am.”
The first thing we say when we introduce ourselves is “I am.” We say our names, our occupations, our age, or whatever else helps us communicate who we are to the people around us. We give them information to name us, and to place us. As time goes on and circumstances get tough, those “I am” statements can become more raw and honest. We might say things like, “I am a failure”, or “I am not worthy of love”, or “I am forgotten.” We may not say these things out loud and we certainly don’t introduce ourselves that way, but we often use these “I am” statements to identify who we are and indicate where our place is. The problem is, we tend to misidentify and make statements about who we are that aren’t actually true. Who we are is not determined by what we do, or by what happens to us; who we are is determined by who we belong to.
Scripture tells us that we belong to God. We are made in His image. He stitched us together in our mothers’ wombs. He sent Jesus to atone for our sins and make us righteous through Him. And He has put His Spirit within us as a deposit or guarantee. We are marked as His. When we remember who God is, it’s easier to remember who we are too.
In Exodus 3, when God sends Moses to deliver His people from the hand of the Egyptians, Moses asks God what he should say if the Israelites want to know who sent him. Basically, he asks God what His name is. God says, in verse 14, “I am who I am.” In other words, God is “I am.” Therefore, when we make “I am” statements to describe who we are, what we say is actually a reflection of who God is.
We can make statements like: “I am beautiful”, “I am strong”, or “I am patient” even when they don’t feel true at that moment. That is not because of who we are, but because of who God is, and because of who He says we are. When we say things like: “I am never going to make it”, “I am ugly”, of “I am unforgivable”, we know they are not true because they are not true of God. Whenever we speak the characteristics of God who lives within us, we step into our true identity and can walk in a godly self-confidence.
How have you been speaking about yourself recently? Are your statements true? Practice picking characteristics of God and claiming them as your own. When you do so, you’re not being overly self-confident; you’re being God confident.