While Waiting: Build Confidence

“I’m waiting on God,” we say to ourselves, but in actuality, we are just too fearful to move forward. Maybe we are jaded from past experiences, maybe there is a voice inside your head that tears you down every time you have a big dream. Whatever the reason, to put it plainly, it is disobedience. 

A lot of us wait for God to move mountains before we decide to obey him, but what if we have to obey him first, and then he will move the mountain? 

God wants a willing servant to go wherever he has called them to go, but sadly, many of us wait for a sign from God to confirm the prompt we felt. If you have prayed and the prompt on your heart grows bigger, then I can tell you with full confidence that the prompting was the sign. 

How do we build the confidence to take that first step? How do you trust in God enough to move forward? 

Read his word. 

God’s word is filled with encouragement so extreme that it can fill you with boldness just by reading it. That is what the living word of God can do, more than any self-help book, good vacation, or monetary reward can do. 

Isaiah 42:16 says, “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”

Stepping onto an unfamiliar path in the dark is unsettling. You are allowed to be nervous, but you cannot let the fear paralyze you into disobedience. Have no idea what you are doing? God does. Have no idea where you are going? God does. Have no way of getting there? God does. 

If he's called you there, he will get you there. But he can't get you anywhere if you are standing still.

A few months ago, Josh and I visited a national park. While at the visitor center, we were warned that there is no cell service and not many signs throughout the park. We would have to rely on a paper map to get us through. 

No problem! I said as we skipped out the door and saw all the incredible landmarks this park had to offer. After a long day, it was time to go back to our hotel. I was the navigator, telling my husband which turn to take to get us out of the park. As we went further and further into isolation and the day grew darker, my fear grew as well. Every worst-case scenario went through my mind: What if we break down? What if we run out of gas? There is no way of getting help. 

I started watching the map in real time. The curve I saw on the map must be the turn we just took, the mountain range on the map must be the one to our left, and so on. I could only confirm we were on the right path a few miles at a time. 

Pulling over or turning back were options, but they didn’t make any sense; we had to keep going forward into complete unknown territory. At least, unknown to us.

I wish I could tell you I was full of confidence and didn’t even think twice about my leading. But in reality, I had severe anxiety and prayed the entire way through.

“God get us home safely, God help us, God calm my nerves, God give us a way out, God help me read the map right.” I was so scared. 

I am sure you can figure out we made it out of the park just fine without those worst-case scenarios happening. However, that does not make the fear or the threat any less real; those things could have happened. 

But they didn’t.

If I ever find myself in a similar situation, I now have a little more confidence than before because God helped me lead in a new way. Keep in mind, I am a 1995 baby, so when I started driving, we had the Tom Toms to help.  I had never had to rely on my directional instinct like that before, but it turns out I have a skill I didn’t know I had, all because I took one step into a new domain.

Read His word daily to build confidence and wisdom when going out in new territory, you may learn something new about yourself and about God’s perpetual guidance through the unknown.