Confidence

"I will change your name. You will no longer be called wounded, outcast lonely or afraid. I will change your name. Your new shall be Confidence, Joyfulness, Overcoming One, Faithfulness, Friend of God, The one who seeks My Face."

"Since we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). Romans 5:1, Amplified Bible

Those around me call me assertive and confident because people do not intimidate me. But is that the confidence that Abba talks about? I think He wants to build the kind of confidence in us that can't be moved or wavered.

This world is constantly changing and we are changing with it and as such the roots of our confidence must be planted in something far more permanent than this world or ourselves. I am not even going to comment on how perishable this world is, I have one word for it- dust.
It is good to be able to pick yourself up and not be easily shaken, but what guarantee do you have that a day won't come along when you won't be able to pick yourself up, when a shock with the magnitude of an earthquake would hit you and you would just stay there not knowing what to do with yourself?

What does it mean to be justified, acquitted? I think the only way we could fully understand what it means would be to find ourselves one day in court with an accusation hanging over our heads. We would fully understand the joy and the peace of being acquitted when the judge's hammer would hit his desk and we would hear "not guilty". That's us before God, every time we do something stupid and we ask for forgiveness, the whole heaven hears the sentence "not guilty!"
The trouble with us is that we didn't have to stay in court for our stupid things, sweating and shacking with the accusation hanging over our heads. Jesus stood there in our place. And because we didn't pay the price, we seem to forget that amazing feeling "I can breath again" an acquitted person feels.

What is true confidence? I believe it is "grasping the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ".
You face the judge with a completely different attitude after you heard the hammer hitting his desk, declaring "not guilty". You can almost start a conversation about the whether or last Saturday's football game, because you are a free man and the pressure of the accusation is no longer hanging between the two of you.
This is what gives me confidence and joy. To me it is as if God decided one day nine years ago" OK, My girl lets remove all this from between us, so that we can actually begin to have a relationship. Do you believe I am your Redeemer, Emma, and I want you to truly live free from all this?" I said yes and it all started. And this Confidence will keep me standing at the end when I will face Him, because my confidence is based on His ability to remove any hindrance from between us, His ability to make me stand tall.

"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?] Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us? Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love?" Romans 8:33-35a