“What’s wrong with being confident?” This was a statement made by pop music artist, Demi Lovato in her 2015 hit, “Confident.” Demi, a former Disney star had broken free from the restrictions of the children’s entertainment company, and this new sense of self-confidence became a banner over her life. Is there anything wrong with being confident? If your confidence is rightly placed, no. However, a confidence that is misplaced can be disastrous. An atheist man once said that he does not have “faith” in scientific theories that he has not personally observed, but rather said he has “confidence” that they are true. What is confidence? The word has Latin roots, and breaking the word down can give us a true sense of what it means to be confident. The word confident comes from the Latin words con and fide. It literally means “with faith.” So to be confident is to have faith. Everyone has faith in something, but where is the right place to set your faith? What kind of faith is destructive, and what kind is acceptable?

Self-confidence is a terribly misleading concept, a Paganistic doctrine that influences many to justify their own pride. It is blindly selfish and promotes the gratification of fleshly desires. It is the Serpent’s lie, the belief that you have the right to disregard God’s authority and write your own story, one in which you are the hero. Though the world may applaud you for boldly “living your truth,” truth is not a concept shaped and chiseled by the human will. It has been set in eternal stone by the Lord God, our Maker. James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Confidence is rightly placed when it is exclusively set in the God of the Bible. This is the kind of confidence exemplified in the life of Jesus. In John 6:38, he said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” If the Lord Jesus Christ’s confidence was in God the Father, then we for sure have no right to arrogantly place our confidence in ourselves. You will never find such a verse of Scripture that encourages you to boost your self-esteem, but God’s Word tells us over and over to trust in the Lord.