As you may be aware it’s that special time of the year again. One of the few days (apart from my birthday in July)  in the year I get very very excited for. On this day 4 years ago, there was a celebration in Heaven as another soul decided to join the winning side.  If you haven’t guessed by now it’s my Baptism Birthday (as I like to call it). I enjoy using this landmark to reflect on my relationship with God and share some encouragement with others.

To begin I want to shed some light on the title – GODFIDENCE.

God•fi•dence

Definition:

A: a feeling or consciousness of Gods powers or of reliance on God’s promises. < I had perfect Godfidence in His ability to HEAL>

B: faith or belief that God will act in a right, proper, or effective way <I have Godfidence in the heavenly Father!>

Synononyms:

Faith

#HolySlang

Do you have GODFIDENCE? 

I believe that this past year has really strengthened my GODFIDENCE. There have been many doubts along the way; I doubted that God will make a way for me to get into Uni, I doubted that God will enable me to pass my exams with all the obstacles and even for a hot sec I doubted that my plane will land safetly despite all the turbulences, you get where I am coming from? I am sure some (if not all) of you are able to relate to those small moments when your mind wanders and you start to lose confidence in God & forget about His wonder working power. Having said all of that, I believe that doubts are a part of a Christian’s journey. Doubts strengthen us in ways we may not be able to understand straightaway.

“A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it”– Timonthy Keller

I have realised that when you decide to follow Christ and make a decision to no longer stay on Satan’s side, his attacks on you become greater. When we decide to turn our backs on the ways and customs of this world we become the number 1 target for Satan. One of the ways he attacks us is by depositing doubts in our minds. He makes us doubt God’s ability and promises. When Satan begins to fire fiery darts of doubts at us, what are we supposed to do? As Ephesians 6:16 states “above all, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

taking up this shield of faith

Taking up the shield of faith means that we decide to see things from God’s perspective, we decide to see beyond our current circumstances and know that ultimate victory is ours. It means that whenever Satan wants you to believe that you made a wrong decision by choosing to be on God’s side you, you remind yourself  that “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?“ Numbers 23:19. God will do what He said He will do, He will stand by His word and come through for you. Doubts pierce our trust in God, but when we take up the shield of faith we are protected.

Abraham’s faith is detailed in Romans chapter 4. Verse 21 says: [Abraham was] fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Unlike yourself and myself Abraham never doubted that God will fulfil his promises, eventhough Satan fired arrows to give him reasons to doubt. God promised to give him a land but satan fired the arrow of famine. God promised to make him father of many nations but satan fired the arrow of old age. Yes Abraham made mistakes, committed sins and experienced failures but he consistently trusted in God. Abraham had GODFIDENCE. The obstacles Abraham faced strengthened his faith. Abraham’s life demonstrates Faith in Action. We should all take a leaf out of Abraham’s book and obey God and wait for Him to fufil his word. As I said in my post A Shout Out to God; Never think that God is punishing you, he is taking you on a journey to strengthen your faith and relationship with Him. AND most of all he is showing that he will remain FAITHFUL to the end. 

How do you feel when your birthday is approaching? I don’t know about you but I am always excited, and sometimes slighlty anxious. I am usually excited to recieve the presents I have been looking forward to. But then I would be anxious about the ones I am not aware of -the surprises. Assurance and anticipation are words that accompany birthdays and surprinsingly or unsurpsingly those words also describe what faith is like. Faith ” is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is the confidence based on our past experiences that God’s new and fresh surprises will surely be ours. Like I mentioned in If He dId it before. He can do it Again: Believe that the same God that helped you to succeed in the past is going to  help you again. He is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Confidence & Certainty are words that should describe our GODFIDENCE. These qualities have a begining and ending point.

1. Begining point: Believe in God’s character – He is who he says he is.
2. End point: Believe in God’s promises – He will do what he says.

When we believe that God will fulfil his promises even though we don’t see those promises happening  we should still demonstrate true faith. Consciously remind yourself of God’s power and rely on His promises. 

Doubts are not a bad thing, as I quoted earlier “A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it”. Antibodies help us build our immunity so that we are able to fight infections when they rise up again. In the same way doubts are fired at us so that we learn to pick up our shield of faith and strengthen it. In John 20:24-31, Jesus doesn’t have a go at Thomas for his doubts. Despite Thomas’s skepticism, he was still loyal to Jesus. Just like Thomas some of us need to doubt before we believe. Doubting leads to questions, then questions lead to answers and then the answers are accepted, in the end the doubts were helpful. It is when our doubt becomes stubbornness and stubborness becomes a prideful lifestlye that doubt harms our faith. When next you find yourself doubting, don’t stop there! Let your doubt deepen your faith as you continue to search for answers or wait for explanations or miracles from God. 

Doubts pierce our trust in God, but our faith protects us.

Stay Blessed,

Dara x

P.S- Please have  a read of the posts I have mentioned in the post, they reinforce the points I have made in this post. If you have any prayer requests please feel free to send them through this link. I am always happy & eager to pray for others 😊