Like a kid?

I look back at when I was a child, and boy do I wish I was still a kid. When Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I totally get it. When I was a kid, there was no worry about bills, responsibility, or accountability. You just did what you did and that was that. Life wasn’t so complex. It didn’t have all these social norms or constructs. It just was.

And with that state of just being comes an amazing freedom. And that freedom enables confidence. Unadulterated, unfiltered, and unrestraint confidence. Confidence in my parents, confidence in my teachers and friends, heck even confidence in the world. It is a confidence that accompanies innocence that children live by that as Jesus said we must replicate. But then you grow up, you live through cheating, stealing, and lies. You live through pain and hurt from those around you. And slowly but surely your confidence in the world and people dwindles and the fire of confidence begins to simmer until there is no fire left but only embers trying to stay ablaze. Dreary I know.

Then someone comes along your path and He invites you in. He invites you into something more. Something worth believing in. Something worth your confidence. And you find out that everything that He says… He does. Everything He says is “Yes” and “Amen”. Everything He does is for your benefit and day by day you confidence increases.

Your confidence grows. And you go on a journey back to the mindset that you once had. The mindset that Jesus wants us to have. We begin this journey, and it leads us to baptism. And as we start this new spiritual life we begin to experience the same things we experienced in our secular one. The same hurt, deceit, and pain. So we close off slowly but surely trying to protect ourselves.

And day by day our confidence gets shaken and we question who and what to be confident in. God? Church? Family? Where are you at with your confidence? Who around you do you have confidence in? This week we are continuing our “self” series with Self-Confidence. Join us this Sabbath to find the answers on who and what to have confidence in. Connected to the Vine, Pastor Victor Reina