Confidence

(italics added by me)

Jeremiah 17:7-8 NLT

But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.


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As I was riding home last night from a long day of church activities, I began to think back to the first women's retreat I went to hosted by the PVCF ladies (or maybe it was the second one.....).

I just remember singing this song where the words were something like this.... "I will give you a new name..... your name will no longer be.... (then there was a long list of stuff that we think about ourselves negatively)". The song went on to announce the new names that God calls us. At the end of singing this song, we got into small groups and prayed with each other. The name spoken over me was "confident". I made this big posterboard with the confident plastered across it diagonally. But the really neat part of it was that I used purple construction paper for the parts that outline the letters, so you had to read the white part of the board to see the word confident.

Anyway, one of the words God gave me about my trip to Virginia was confidence. It was going to be a time of letting go (finding closure for the pain of the past) and a time for stepping out in confidence. I had forgotten all about that past women's retreat and my "new name" from so long ago. But it all came back to me on my trip home last night.

I know many people who have a "life verse".... something they cling to that defines or represents their life. There are several versed I have always liked, and some I have clung to in difficult times (like James 1:2-4 really speaks to me during deployments...... "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.")

But after thinking about this "new name" God gave to me years ago.... and how He has brought it back up again recently, I decided to look up some verses with the word confidence in them. I think my favorite is Jeremiah 17:7-8.

I don't know if I would consider it a "life verse", but I know I want to be like that strong tree planted by the riverbank. I want to be so confident in and through the Lord that I can still produce fruit in my life in the midst of times of heat and drought, without worry because my hope is in the Lord.

Lord God, thank you for working in my life in such tangible ways. Thank you that you provide those opportunities to step out in faith, to build confidence and hope in You. Thank you that you want to build and equip me to further your kingdom. I love you. Amen.