Life can sometimes pack a punch!

Life can sometimes shake your confidence in God! It can threaten, undermine, and disappoint you. Things happen that really make you wonder where God is and if He stepped away for a moment.

Truthfully, it's all a matter of perspective. Generally, we assess and evaluate negative experiences with being bad, unnecessary, and detrimental. That will always be what it appears on the surface. Being human, our first reactions to challenges and disappointments are usually seen as a negative.

My thoughts turn to Jochebed, Moses' mother, Esther, Naboth, Joseph, David, and others who experienced a powerful punch while 'Doing Life'. 

Jochebed's young son's life was being threatened. All the male babies of the Hebrews were being annihilated. What stress and pressure and fear permeated their environment. Jochebed, who was a woman of prayer, put her faith in action. As we know, faith without works is dead. She found a way where her son would survive the threats of the enemy. As oppose to folding her hands in fear, and distraught, she folded her hands in prayer, and God gave the solution. After all, God was in the details of the enemie's plans. God knew why He allowed it in the first place. Moses became the leader of the Israelites, and a friend of Gods, whom He spoke with face to face! What a turn of events. Things started out threatening and ended in victory, not only for Moses and his family, but an entire nation of people!

Esther, now queen of Babylon, was adjusting to her position when the news of a threat of annihilation of her people, the Jews, hit her ears. That was when it all started to make sense as to why she was chosen to be queen in the first place. The king had not called for her for quite some time, and she couldn't just walk into his presence. She summons the women closest to her, and encourages a prayer meeting. Her next move would either be the death of her or deliverance for her people. She put her welfare, and life on the line, and went into the presence of the king anyway. God gave her the wisdom, and the discernment, and the process she was to execute in order to nail wicked Haman. Deliverance came to Israel! Their lives were spared!

Naboth was a man like any other who was busy with what God gave him to do when King Ahab showed up talking about, "Give me your vineyard." Really now. Ahab's obsession with Naboth's vineyard cost Naboth his life. The king's wife, Jezebel, took it upon herself to get that vineyard for her husband, and concocted a plot behind her husband's back, and had Naboth killed. Why would God allow that, you would ask? God's ways are past finding out. But know this, He allowed it for His honor and glory. No obedient man dies before his time. God was calling this brother home. We all have an expiration date! Death comes when it comes. Life packed a punch for Naboth that day. No doubt, he died with courage, because his confidence was in his God!

Joseph, at age 17, got a raw deal, so it  seemed. His own brethren, his own siblings, because of jealousy and envy, did him in. Originally, they were going to kill him. Joseph gets sold and then he's lied on by Potiphar's wife, and thrown into prison. Years later, he is released because he revealed the hidden meaning behind a dream the king of Egypt dreamt. Joseph becomes the governor of Egypt. Had Joseph not gone through all those challenges and trials, he would not have saved his family, and all of Egypt, during the famine. God had a greater plan in mind when He allowed the wickedness of Joseph's brethren to prevail.

David, the shepherd boy with a harp, was simply doing his chores when life changed for him. He was anointed at a very young age and ended up slaying a giant who defied the army of the living God. King Saul and his men were in fear of Goliath, and David, a stripling of a boy, shows up with his trusty sling shot, and the rest is history. David is praised by the women and Saul becomes jealous and envious to the point of wanting to kill David. Now, David didn't ask for all of this; he was simply doing what was normal for him to do. But, as a young man, he had faith in the God of Israel and it gave him the strength to stand up to Goliath. Now he is running for his life for how ever many years. Long story short, David becomes Israel's second king. David went from a lowly chore of watching dirty, stink sheep, to becoming king. He was the youngest of Jesse's sons and the most insignificant. 

All of these individuals were faced with challenges that were hard. All of them were subject to like passions such as you and I, and all of them were living their lives day by day when life packed a punch. They had confidence in God!

Confidence in God is when:

1. You know your value without someone having to tell you
2. You quietly wait on God when others are chosen instead of you
3. You are able to stand alone and be okay with it
4. You accept the good, the bad, and the ugly, situations as aids for your spiritual development
5. You experience peace and calm despite the storm
6. You can pray for your enemies, accusers, and abusers
7. You hide yourself under the shadow of His wings
8. You see the blessing in everything, I mean everything
9. You believe that all things will work for your good
​10. Your greater desire is to fulfill your god-given purpose in life

Have Confidence In God!!!

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