It came to my inbox…an email from Livestrong. Livestrong is the organization Lance Armstrong founded as the umbrella for his cancer foundation. It has branched into healthy living, exercises, and other items along that line. I usually peruse the email looking to see if anything catches my eye. If not, I trash it. If so, I click on the highlighted item and read away. This time what the editor (Sarah Metzger) wrote caught my eye:
Confidence. The word becomes extra powerful during beach body season.
Some summertime confidence boosters are quick fixes. See, for example, the practical tips for eliminating the appearance of cellulite in this week’s One GREAT Answer.
As much as we all love a fast feel-better fix, we also believe that regular healthy eating and fitness are the secrets to lasting self-assurance.
When you take care of your body with nutritious foods (here’s 5 you’ve gotta try) and a regular fitness routine, you’ll get more than better body benefits you can show off on vacation or at the beach.
As I’ve learned through my eating makeover, making the choice to take care of yourself daily leads to an inner confidence that’s more powerful than any change you can make to your physical appearance.
(I am sorry that the copy and paste would only come out small. The links do work). I am not going to take this time to talk about body confidence, although that is most definitely the point she is trying to make. And I don’t go “Pffft” at that, for that is the purpose of Livestrong. However, as I read it, I found her saying some things that apply to the life of the Christ-follower.
C.O.N.F.I.D.E.N.C.E
Where is your confidence? Our culture puts a lot of stock in our physical well-being. Eat right. Play right. Sleep right. Relax right. Don’t get me wrong here: I. AM. BIG. ON. ALL. OF. THOSE. (I do need to follow them more closely). 🙂 But the truth still remains: no matter how well we take care of ourselves, our bodies will wear out. We will die. Statistics are 1 out of 1. Take a gander at these:
“For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” Pr.3:26
“For we are the real circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” Phil. 3:3
What really caught my eye in her article was this: “Making the choice to take care of yourself daily leads to an inner confidence that’s more powerful than any change you can make to your physical appearance.” That has spiritual implications dripping all over it (for me, not necessarily for Ms. Metzger). I have to make the choice daily to take care of my spiritual needs, if I want to be truly transformed from the inside out. That is why I wrote this post about my blogging habits. If I don’t take care of my spiritual needs first, I won’t have anything to lean on, to put my confidence in, or worth saying. (There is also something to be said about her “fast feel-good fix” comment)
What do you think? Do you have a confidence verse you can go to? Are you (honestly) taking time to nurture your spiritual man so that your confidence is not from outward appearance but from a heart settled on Christ? I would love to hear what you are thinking.
When it comes to a confidence verse – Acts 4:13 – Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
Peter and John had confidence that was seen by others and people knew that they had been with Jesus.
I am struggling right now with taking the time to really nurture the inner man. I am well ahead for my week and so I plan on taking some time the next two days to get things back in line.
Good Post!
Good verse Jim! I love that one. What a testimony to the work of God. Hoping you find the time for some “inner man” time. Praying for you and the meeting. thanks.
Tonight is the last service and I am doing one of my favorite passages of Scripture – 1 Samuel 14 – Perhaps God will be with us – a message on the courage to take God sized risks. Thanks for the prayers!
Thanks for letting me know Jim. Prayers are said.
I do take care of myself as best as life in the big city will allow. Jesus is faithful, and I am glad the body wears out, then I can be with him all the time feeling great, not working, and finally at peace with everything and everyone!
Matthew6:25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
I like v34 the best!
David,
Good to see you here! Thanks for visiting. I, too, look forward to the day when all is done. Verse 34 sure is important in our day. thanks again for coming by.
Oh, I check you out from time to time!
Just as I do yours! 🙂 Thanks.
Prov 3:26 has always been a favorite of mine: “”For the LORD will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.”
He is our confidence!
Good verse! Thanks Dustin!
Hi Bill,
I hope I can keep my comment on track today! 🙂 My mind wanders off on its own at times. :0
Confidence: in Jesus Christ alone.
I think what we are beginning to see in our day is how quickly things that the world values can be gone in a few minutes of time. We are admonished over and over in the Word of God not to put our trust in the things of the world. Possessions, power, money, positions in our society, etc. etc.
A recent wildfire in northern Alberta destroyed 40% of the buildings and property in a town of about 10,000 people living in Slave Lake. The business area was burned out and many houses. The wildfire even started melting the metal of cars as it burned through the town.
If we haven’t already, we need to turn and face God and look to Him and Him alone for our security and confidence. The world can be raging around us and we as believers can still be in one piece, having a confidence that defies logic and reason. A God thing.
The book of Job caught my eye this morning as I opened my Bible to continue reading the gospel of John. I think I’m going to read a few chapters in Job. I seem to be relating to some of his words and his situation these days. 🙂
We need to keep coming back to the disciplines of reading the Bible, praying, worshiping God. I’m going to say tithing too. Tithing in my experience, in my own life, freed me up to be a better giver. I don’t think that tithing is less impactful than the other disciplines we need in our lives for our spiritual well being.
talk to you later Bill. I hope you have a good day today.
thank you so much for your prayers in this stressful time I’m going through. I did learn something about myself just yesterday. I’m an adult child of an alcoholic father. My dad was alcoholic. I think that’s the area where some of weaknessess that have been showing up lately in my life are originating from.
See Zee? Something good came out of something hard in my life. I’m understanding myself better. To God be the glory to heal me fully and completely and make me whole!!
You did well Linda! 😛 You are right about looking to Him as our security. Hope you have a good day. I am glad I can pray for you and really glad you have been able to learn about ACOA. One of my best friends had a wife who was and it not good. I pray you will heal. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Linda.
🙂 Glad that there is some good stuff coming even from the tough places – if anything, that makes hard times more bearable because you know that something can be learned through them.
*hug*
Agreed. A must attitude.
“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Phil. 1:6.
It’s hard for me to wait on God. I trust that He is going to complete what He started with me and I have confidence in that…most days. On days that I don’t it’s hard to wait for God.
Welcome to my blog Rob. Been to yours and plan to go back. We definitely have Chipotle in common. Anyway, it is hard to wait…been there done that, still doing it. 🙂 Thanks for the comment.
I am thankful for doctors…but they are only patching us up. My dad,(89), lifted weights and jogged all his life. I told him he will be the healthiest dead man ever.
“you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your councel, and afterward you will take me into glory (Psalm 73:23-26). “Taken in”! Sounds better than “death”:-)
I think I like your dad Ike. 🙂 Gives me hope!! Great verse also. thanks. Hope you and Carol are doing well.
Mercy says:
Hi Bill,
I have a confidence verse I can go to. It’s Philippians 4:13 -I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I am really really taking time to nurture my spiritual man. I think I needed this post today. It’s a wonderful post.
That is a great verse to cling to Mercy! Glad to hear you are taking the time to nurture your inner man. You will not go wrong doing that. Thanks for the kind words and comment.
I guess my confidence verse comes from Romans 8:38-39 (MSG):
As for the second question: never tried to nurture my spiritual man, but do try to nurture my spiritual woman 😛 These past couple of weeks it has been tough, tho. Yet, I am convinced that nothing………..(see above) 🙂
Love the verses Zee. Ha, you are even trying to be funny. 🙂 Tough weeks make for ready disciples. 😛
I know you mention Philippians 3, but verses 13-14 popped out to me as I was reading this post:
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Paul knew that confidence rooted in ourselves gets us nowhere, but a confidence sustained in Christ brings us somewhere and produces results.
You know, I was just flipping through the book of Psalm, and I came across Psalm 27:13-14:
13 I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
Sorry, but I just love these verses as well.
I had forgotten about these Jon. Thanks.
Good verses and thought Jon. Confidence in the right place. Thanks.
My confidence verse is “If God is for me, who can come against me”. I mean really, is there better confidence than that?
This is the kind of confidence that lived in the heart of David when he threw the rock between the eyes of the Giant, ran towards him and cut off his head.
Yeah, that’s what I want. (the confidence, not to cut someone’s head off). 🙂
No better place to have our confidence Moe. That is a great example with David & Goliath. Thanks for the comment.
What am I thinking? You don’t want to know.
Actually there are several times in the day when I go into a prayer- conversation with God. Most of the time it is reasoning behind the passages and what God is really like.
The one thing is I gain confidence from these times of what I think God is allowing me to think. Some of it is really off the wall scientifically, super naturally, and spiritually.
The first chapter of Ezekiel really gives me confidence that God is far more advanced that we can comprehend scientifically or super naturally.
I can’t recall another prophets name but he was taken in a vessel above the earth to the beginning of space and observed that the earth was round like an orb. Consider this was over two thousand years before it was discovered that the earth was not flat but round. Another super natural or scientific incident from biblical times.
I have complete confidence in God’s ability scientifically and supernaturally to do wonders that even our current day scientist cannot explain.
I think we all are going to be surprised in the final days when we do actually see God as he really is. Just as Jesus was not recognised at first when he returned to the apostiles to spend time with them before He ascended to heaven, so shall we too.
Gotta wonder what will happen Larry. I sometimes wonder what heaven will really be like. Thanks for the comment.
I think John in Revelations gave us a brief description of what Heaven is like.
True but I think it will be much more than John was able to describe. 🙂
Bill,
I loved the quote you shared from the email.
I have found my confidence grows when I have a balanced life/ take care of myself. I think we can see things more clearly when we do. Great thoughts.
Dan
Glad you liked the quote Dan. I too find my confidence grows when I have a more balanced life. All work and no play makes Bill a very edgy guy. Thanks for coming by.
Great message Bill. All of my confidence is in Him!
It is the only place to put our confidence Tom where we know it won’t fail or falter. Thanks for the comment.
God does give us the grace, ability, and wisdom to take care of ALL our sides if we will listen and obey. Doesn’t mean it’s easy for sure! But we can have confidence in Him. Good word, Bill. Thank you!
never ceases to amaze how much and what God gives us. it is good to be able to place our confidence in Him. Thanks for coming by Jason.