Today’s Reading: Genesis 16-18; Mark 6
With the New Year just passing, many people are trying to find themselves and trying to reinvent themselves with resolutions. The new year always brings about a transformation for our past-self to self that should be somewhat better, somewhat different, and somewhat improved. The one thing that we have to recognize is that we already are amazing individuals, but we sometimes do not have the ability to see for ourselves the goodness that God has put in us. Many times we are searching for a new app, a new diet, a new way of organizing; but these are already inside of us. We just have to understand and be able to tap into our own potential that God has placed it.
In our reading today from Genesis and Mark, we have several individuals who do not understand the full confidence in their abilities and try to make up for it in various ways. They are questioning their confidence in themselves and the promise of God.
We first started with Sarai. God has promised her that she would be fruitful in her womb and the mother of many nations. But she did not understand how to depend on God‘s timing for her and his promise. So Sarai doesn’t have the confidence in herself to produce the promise God has set for her. She decides to take matters into her own hands and bring her servant to assist her. She lacked confidence in herself to wait for fulfillment of God’s promise. How many times do we have a promise from God and we attempt to assist God in his fulfillment of our promises from him?
Next, we have Abram. Abram had actually seen God. He had seen him in the form of angels and humans. Abram had been in communication with God and was able to connect with God on a personal level. Abram had a relationship with God and had confidence in God, but not confidence in himself. Abram decided to “assist” God in his promised fulfillment as well. But this brought about unrest and division between his family. He didn’t feel confident in himself that God would be able to create a nation in a person who is more than seventy years old.
Then we have Hagar. She was a servant to Sarai. She didn’t have any form of self awareness. She was at the behest and order of Sarai. But when Sarai chose her to be the bearer of the promised nation, Hagar became more confident in herself and started to move from her station to a bigger one. She became embolden and this created a rift in the family.
The lesson that we can gain from this passage is to be confident in the person that God has placed in us. We have so much potential and internal worth that we sometimes forget and try to push it faster than God wants. We have to be confident in God’s fulfillment of his promises and confident in the skills that are inside us.
The second passage of today’s reading, Mark 6, dovetails so well with the confidence in one’s self and ability.
- Christ gives us confidence in confronting our peers and past life and the ability to reach for higher heights. This allows us to not be conformed to our past self and failures but open to the possibility of the future. This confidence is seen when Jesus returns home to begin his ministry. This doesn’t dissuade him in his ministry. It actually propels Jesus into a more open ministry.
- Christ gives us confidence in being able to go out on our “own” and be able to perform miracles in his name as seen when he sent the disciples out on their mission.
- Christ gives us confidence in his ability to provide for us out of ordinary and sometimes minimal resources form us as shown to us when he performs the miracle of feeding the five thousand.
- Christ gives us confidence in the darkness and despair in the sea of life as seen with the disciples when we walked on water.
Allow this week to be a week where you can recapture your confidence in yourself. Allow God to show you a piece of your promise and know that he will be there with you.