When Your Confidence Has Been Shaken

She was She and her husband, Eldon, did the things

you're supposed to do. She kept a budget, planned ahead, and was

confident she could handle the finances and keep the family on

solid ground. herself. Some people can't balance a checkbook.

Shonda could. It was one of the things she was sure about. And

then the ground moved. The short version is that the finances

came apart. Not in a way she could budget her way out of, and

not in a way that a spreadsheet could fix. It kept getting worse,

past the point where being careful made any difference at

all. And one day, this careful, capable woman was sitting in

front of a bankruptcy attorney. If you've never been there, it's

difficult to explain what that does to a person on the inside.

It isn't only about the money. It's about the story you told

yourself concerning who you are. Shonda was the one who had it

handled. Now, the paperwork in front of her said, in black and

white, that she didn't. Everything she'd been standing

on, the competence, the record of doing it right, was gone out

from under her. So, here's the question that was really on the

table that day. When the thing you were sure you could do turns

out to be the thing that just what do you have left to stand

on? We'll come back to what Shonda found. But

first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm

Bart Leger. Let me tell you where this one hits me. I teach

classes on psychological crisis intervention. And at the end,

every participant fills out an evaluation. And part of it is a

review of how I did. Most of them are kind. But it only takes

one negative comment to really knock my feet out from under me.

I can read 20 that say the class helped them and that I was a

great trainer. And the one that didn't is the one that follows

me home. I have to go back and remind myself that I did the

best in that room and then leave the rest with God. My confidence,

left to itself, is only as solid as the last review. Maybe you

know the feeling from maybe the far side of something bigger.

There was a stretch of years when you knew who you were and

what you were doing. You were good at the job or the role

you'd grown into. And then something happened. The job you

were sure about ended. The thing you were certain you could

handle turned out to be beyond you. And you've been off balance

ever since. Second-guessing decisions you used to make in

your sleep. Here's the thing about the confidence most of us

build. We build it on our track record, on the evidence that

we're capable, that we've handled things before. And that

kind of confidence works right up until the the evidence

changes. Then it cracks because it was resting on us the whole

time. Solomon points to a different footing. Listen to

Proverbs 3.26.

The means the thing you lean your whole weight on. For years,

that was your competence and your record of getting it right.

Solomon moved it on to firmer ground. The Lord himself, who

doesn't change when your circumstances do. And look at

the promise attached. He will keep your foot from being caught

in a trap. Solomon knows you'll walk toward traps you don't see.

The promise is that God keeps your footing when you do. That

kind of confidence can survive the next thing going wrong

because it didn't depend on you being good enough. Now let me

tell you what happened to Shonda. What Shonda found is that she

had one thing and it turned out to be the thing that held up.

She put it in a sentence later and it's one of those sentences

that sounds simple until you had to live it. When all you have is

God, you find that God's enough. That's not a line she got off a

coffee mug. She earned it in a lawyer's office with her

competence in pieces on the floor. And here's what I want

you to notice. Her confidence didn't come back the same way it

left. Before, it had been propped up by her own track

record, by the fact that she was good at this. What she rebuilt

afterward was propped up by God, which meant it could survive the

next failing because it was never resting on her being good

enough in the first place. Shonda writes and speaks now at

conferences and retreats about the healing she found in Jesus.

And when her son later went to prison, she and Eldon didn't

come apart. They built a ministry called Fortress of Hope

to walk with other families who have someone they love behind

bars. The woman whose foundation once collapsed spends her days

now helping other people find the one that doesn't. When all

you have is God, you find out that God is enough. She learned

it in the most difficult way in that lawyer's office. You don't

have to lose everything to learn it. You can start moving your

weight on to him today before the next thing gives. Here's

today's challenge. Name the thing your confidence has been

resting on. It might be the job title or the role you're known

for. Then say this to God. This is a gift from you and my

foundation is you alone, God. Ask him to rebuild your

confidence on ground that can hold you when the gift or the

ability is gone. And the next time one bad review or one

setback knocks you sideways, go back and remind yourself you did

your best and leave the rest with him.

on and you've watched some of it give way. Thank you that you

don't change when our circumstances do. Be our

security and rebuild our confidence on you so we can hold

when our track record can't. When one setback knocks us

sideways, hold us up and remind us that we've done our best and

the rest is safe in your hands. In Jesus' name, amen. This

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dailydevotionsforbusylives.com support. Thank you so much. And

thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.

Remember, confidence built on your track record will crack

under pressure and confidence rooted in God can hold you when

everything else gives way. Come back next time for more

encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth. Until

then, God bless and have a great day.