Sick of Me by Whitney Capps

Author:Whitney Capps
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Life/Women's Issues
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2019-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Confidence for the less-than-confident. Yep. That’s me. How about you? Ever felt on the outside? Good news. Confidence isn’t based on being a part of the cool kids. Maybe you’ve been embarrassed by your background. You’re in luck. Confidence isn’t dependent on what all you know. Our confidence comes from Christ. And our confidence is in Christ.

You see, friend, our confidence isn’t in ourselves but rather in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ-confident people don’t carry shame from their past. Christ-confident people don’t get hung up on their own inadequacies. Christ-confident people don’t look to others to determine their own worth. We have no need to build our trust in who we are or have been. It’s only Jesus.

When we get a taste of that kind of Christ-confidence, we can’t help but share it. That kind of confidence is contagious. Can you remember a time that you felt that way? The stuff of your faith felt so real that you almost couldn’t keep it in? I haven’t felt that often, but when I have felt that way I remember not being consumed with what other people thought of me. I remember being completely consumed with Jesus and pleasing Him.

That’s the substance of the confidence to which John is referring.

Now perhaps you can wrap your brain around confidence. Maybe being completely consumed with Jesus and what He has done sounds really nice. But to live unashamed? Well that one is a little trickier.

Living a life unashamed is harder to grab ahold of. I mean, live confident in the work of Jesus? I get that. Forget the mountain of debt I had against God? Live completely free from the guilt and shame of that? So much harder, right? Shame is a stubborn weed that comes back no matter how many times I pull it, you know?

When the devil begins to attack us, it’s best not to argue with him. I’ve lost quite a few arguments with the devil. I know I have authority over him, but when he starts reading my rap sheet of crimes against God and comparing me to other women, I can get sucked into a “me” spiral. When this starts to happen, the only solution is to take me out of the equation. The only way to shut up the devil is at the cross.

The church at Colossae knew about having an attacked, vulnerable faith. One of the purposes of Paul’s letter to the Colossians was to firm up their faith and remind them of their confidence in the cross. In Colossians 2:14–15 Paul says, “Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

The only way to shut up the devil is at the cross.

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