Living Without Self Confidence

Living Without Self Confidence.

Having self-confidence is a good thing. No one likes to be around someone who is not confident. In fact, people will say you must believe in yourself, if you don’t you will never achieve anything. But I believe that there is a fine line between having self-confidence and depending only on your own abilities.

This morning I want to look and the lives of two people we see in Scripture. Both we hold up to being heroes of the faith. We hear their names and instantly recognize them as two truly great people of the Bible. In fact, they are both mentioned by the writer of Hebrews Chapter 11 as heroes of the faith; those who have gone before that we look to them and understand the way that they allowed God to use them in their time.

The two men we are talking about were both Israelites. God used them for the same purpose. To protect and deliver his chosen people, but during different times. Their lives were separated by almost 300 years.

Who are they? Moses and Gideon.

You know them. We see the life of Moses throughout the book of Exodus. And we see the life of Gideon in the book of Judges. Both in the Old Testament.

Now they may have both been Israelites, they may have both been used by God for the purpose of protecting his chosen people, but they both had something else in common. They were not confident in themselves or their own abilities.

Now let us understand that as a Christian, our strength and confidence should not come from our own abilities. Just as the Lord told Joshua, who then told the Israelites. "Be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6)." The strength and courage was not because of their own ability, it was because of a reliance on the God that had called then to take possession of the Promised Land.

But with both Moses and Gideon, as the Lord met with them on separate occasions to give them instruction on what to do, they looked inside of themselves and said, I can't do that.

Let's look at Moses and his lack of confidence.

In Exodus chapter 2, we see the birth of Moses, and because his Mother was fearful that he would be found and killed by Pharaoh, she hid him. But he was found by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised as an Egyptian. So here is Moses, an Israelite, being raised in Egypt in the best house, the house of the Pharaoh.

In verse 11 of Chapter 2, Moses has grown up and one day he sees he sees his own people being beaten. He sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite, and it's angers him, so he kills the Egyptian. He was fearful and he ran. He knew that he needed to go far away where no one would know him, the city of Median. He found favor in the eyes of Jethro the priest in Median and married his daughter and had a son. But back in Egypt, the Israelites were crying out to God for deliverance, they were being mistreated and slaves of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

So, Moses had his new life, living in Median, married and working for his father-in-law in the fields among the sheep. His life seemed to be rolling along, it had been 40 years since he ran from Egypt, but God's plan to care for his chosen people was still alive, and he was about to put Moses back into service. In Exodus Chapter 3 God meets with Moses to give him instruction. Moses was out caring for the flock and he looks up and sees a burning bush. But the interesting thing was, it just kept burning, it never stopped. So, Moses, goes over to check it out, and a voice speaks from the bush, and it is the Lord.

The Lord begins to tell Moses of the problems that the Israelites are facing and to make a long story short he tells Moses; you are going to be the lead man to bring them out of this persecution. You are going to go back face-to-face and tell Pharaoh that the Lord says, you need to let me people go.

What was Moses's response? Exodus 3:11

But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

and again in Exodus 4:1

...But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, THE LORD did not appear to you.

and then two more times in Exodus 4:10-13

But Moses said to the LORD, OH, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue. Then the LORD said to him, Who has made mans mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. But he said, OH, my Lord, please send someone else.