The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
In a world filled with a lot of talk, we want to have meaningful, biblical conversations with those God has entrusted to us. Join Tosha Williams and the Family Disciple Me ministry for Devotion Driven Discipleship conversation starters that will encourage you to "Seek Him Speak Him" in your own life.
Family Disciple Me is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Christian ministry dedicated to catalyzing Devotion Driven Discipleship in our own lives and homes as well as around the world.
For more information, visit familydiscipleme.org
The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
Character Conversations: CONFIDENT // Being Sure About Who You Are Because of What God is Doing In You
Are you a sure and secure person? Wherever you are on the confidence scale, can you imagine living with unshakable confidence, not based on your own abilities but rooted in something far greater? Inspired by the classic film "The Sound of Music" and the empowering song "I Have Confidence," I (Tosha Williams) reflect on how these influenced my own life and family. Yet, we pivot to explore what it truly means to find confidence through God's promises. Through the lens of Philippians 1:6 and Psalm 27, we examine how to build a life on the foundation of God's faithfulness - a foundation that becomes our own strength.
Listen in to this episode, then have a "devotion driven discipleship" conversation with someone entrusted to you - - - use these conversation notes to get the discussion started and see where the trail leads you!
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“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 NIV
SEEK HIM: Devotion is Meeting with God in Our Own Lives! Some people are naturally confident and sure of themselves; others of us struggle to know our worth or purpose in life. Thing is, God wants His children to find their confidence in Him and His work in us. Let’s “Seek Him” starting with Philippians 1:6 about this character trait of being confident.
- WHAT: What is God saying through this Scripture? To be confident is to be persuaded and convinced about a specific truth. For a Christ follower, that truth is that God started a good work in us and promises to finish it through us. ~ What are some ways that people typically get confidence? Are you one of God’s children? What are two good things He has started in you?
- WHY: Why does this Scripture matter? Confidence for a Christian is not just about being sure of who you are, but being sure about what God is doing in and through you. As we follow Him, God wants us to be convinced that He is at work in every aspect of our lives. Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” ~ What are you placing your confidence in? What does this look like in your life?
- HOW: How does God want us to respond to this truth? We can be confident in meeting life’s challenges by leaning into our relationship with the LORD and asking His strength. ~ Read Psalm 27 and list the areas in which God’s strength helped David be confident. Which of these can apply to your life? How is God calling you to place your confidence in Him?
SPEAK HIM: Discipleship is Making God Known to Others! As we grow with the Lord in being teachable, hard working and courageous, He will begin to fill us with confidence to do what He has created and called us to do. This includes speaking Him into the lives of others He has entrusted to us. Who can you encourage in the Lord today? Who can you inspire to be confident in Him?
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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.
Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org
One of my favorite movies is the Sound of Music. Loosely based on the true story of the Von Trapp family during World War II, the Sound of Music has to be one of the most beautiful musicals of all time. When I was a kid, my family used to watch this on television every year when it came on as a special event. Television every year when it came on as a special event. Throughout my teenage years I returned time and time again to the Rodgers and Hammerstein sheet music, pounding out all the songs on the piano and singing the lyrics at the top of my voice, from the bottom of my heart. To this day, those lyrics still bubble up in my life and find voice in the situations I'm facing. Even now, as I think of the character trait of confidence, I can see the movie character, maria, looking into her unknown future and expressively singing these words I have confidence in sunshine. I have confidence in rain. I have confidence that spring will come again. Besides what you see, I have confidence in me.
Speaker 1:Strength doesn't lie in numbers. Strength doesn't lie in wealth. Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumber when you wake up. Wake up, it's healthy. All I trust I leave my heart to. All I trust becomes my own. I have confidence in confidence alone. Besides which, you see, I have confidence in me. Maria's song filled me with such enthusiastic confidence in my own life. I marched to its beat. I sang the lyrics with my own kids as they grew up. However, in recent days, as I've searched the word about the biblical character trait of confidence, I can't find this song's foundation in scripture. Turns out, the confidence in herself worked out really well for Maria in the movie. I've noticed in the Bible that God wants His kids to build their confidence an entirely different way. That's what we're going to talk about in this podcast episode, so let me cue the intro and then we'll be right back to spend a few moments considering this character trait of confidence.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Family Disciple Me podcast. If you have a real relationship with Jesus, then you're in the right place to be encouraged, challenged and blessed as you seek Him, speak Him. The mission of the Family Disciple Me ministry is to inspire devotion-driven discipleship, which is something we believe every Christ follower can do.
Speaker 1:Discipleship starts with a conversation, so let's get going with that right now. I really believe that life is better when we can hold up our heads and walk through our days with confidence. As I think about it, I know that's true for me as a woman, as a wife, as a mom, a grandma, as a ministry leader, as a servant within the body of Christ. I really believe this is true for you too that your life is, or will be, better when you can hold up your head and walk through your days with confidence as well. Confidence is being sure about who you are and what God is doing in you. Thing is, god doesn't want us to just have confidence in confidence alone. He doesn't expect us to have confidence in ourselves alone. These approaches may be inspiring, like in the song I have Confidence, which I quoted earlier. However, god's way for his people, well, it's unique. It's different than the world's way. It's different from what Hollywood or Broadway would teach us. God wants His people to live according to His way, his word. Yes, god wants us to be confident people, but not first or foremost in ourselves or in anything around us. Scripture teaches us that he wants us to find our confidence in him and his working in our lives. The Bible says this in Philippians 1.6,. Now, this word confident in this verse it's closely related to being persuaded or convinced about something that is trustworthy. This persuasion, it's not about arm twisting or a mental manipulation of the facts. This convincing well, it's not about propping ourselves up that we're all that. This trust, it's not about just our own guts or our hearts or our feelings. This persuasion and convincing in this particular verse, it's based upon what we've already seen God do and experienced with him. Because we've seen his faithfulness in the past, we can trust that he'll be faithful in our future. And this leads us to trust. That gives us confidence for today. This confidence for Christ followers is about being persuaded and convinced about who God is and what he has promised that he will do, and then applying that to our lives. So, as you think about your confidence and consider what or who you are placing your confidence in, my question for you and for myself is what has God already done in our lives? Has he been faithful? Has he fulfilled any promises? Has he been true to his word? When I stop and think about these questions for my own life, I know God has been faithful. I know he's fulfilled his promises and that he's in the process of fulfilling even more right now, today. I know God has been true to his word. He has done so many miracles in my life and, as I look back, this gives me confidence for my future that he's going to keep working in me and around me and through me.
Speaker 1:What about you? Has God shown himself trustworthy in your life? Think of the ways he's been true to his word, the ways that he's fulfilled his promises for you, the ways he's worked the miraculous in your life. I'm taking a huge leap here, but I am certain that he's done all of these things for you, if you're his child. So as you think about confidence, let that become your foundation. This is definitely what I want as my foundation. It's way better than a Rodgers and Hammerstein song, as wonderful as that is, still talking about confidence in spiritual terms. Well, it's all well and good, but how does it apply? How do I put it into effect? Where do we get this sort of confidence from in our day-to-day lives?
Speaker 1:Psalm 27 is a really beautiful scripture. I found that gives me a pathway toward true confidence, and I believe that even as King David is teaching me the pathway to confidence. Through this psalm, I want to show it to you. It says in part this the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? To confidence. Through this psalm, I want to show it to you. It says in part this the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Speaker 1:Psalm 27. There's so much more in this passage, so I encourage you to just take a moment and read this whole chapter, but this part I remain confident of this I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I will be confident that I'm going to see God's goodness today. You know, really, this is where, as they say, the rubber meets the road. What are you thinking about today? What am I thinking about today?
Speaker 1:I don't know about you, but I don't always wake up thinking about confidence. Instead, I sometimes get up thinking about my hardcore mothering years and I feel the guilt and the shame that I wasn't enough and that puts a stronghold on me for my future. And yet God tells me to hold up my head and look to him for my future. And yet God tells me to hold up my head and look to him. Or sometimes I wake up and I'm glancing around my life. I'm looking at my calendar and all the obstacles I face today obstacles that are way bigger than me and I feel overwhelmed. I don't have what it takes, and yet God tells me to remain confident that he will show me his goodness in all of this. And then sometimes I see the reminders of where I don't think I can face what's in front of me. It's too hard, it's too challenging, it's too painful, it's too difficult, whatever. And yet God's word reminds me to let him fill my encouragement cup as I wait for him to do his work through me.
Speaker 1:As Christ followers thing is, the way we can be confident in meeting whatever it is that life brings our way is by leaning into our relationship with him, asking for his strength and trusting that he is who he says he is and that he's going to do what he said he's going to do. I love Jeremiah 17, 7. It says blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. For a Christ follower, confidence is being sure about yourself, because of who God is and what he's doing in and through you. I'll admit, this definition is upside down, inside out logic in a world that says you, do you or look out for number one, or trust your heart, follow your gut. And yet this is the way God wants his kids to live.
Speaker 1:I love the progression of these character conversations because we started with talking about being teachable. We're teachable in so many ways, starting with God's word and then we talked about the character trait of being hardworking. Confidence can come from being teachable and then putting our very best effort into everything that we do. That's biblical and as we do those things that can fill our heart, our cores, with courage, which is what we talked about in the last conversation and all of those character traits now can lead us to this confidence that God is at work in us and through us, because he's trustworthy, he's true to his word, he fulfills his promises.
Speaker 1:This doesn't mean we have all the answers or we do everything perfect or have everything under control. It doesn't mean we're going to walk into every situation knowing exactly what to do or perform off the charts in every area of our lives. This means that we're intentionally cooperating with the Lord in every area of our life, doing our best and trusting him with the results. This applies to us to you and to me as we seek him and then, as we always say with family, disciple me as we seek him. Then we turn around and we speak him into the lives of those entrusted to us.
Speaker 1:These precious ones entrusted to us may be little people. They may be elementary kids or middle schoolers or high schoolers or young adults. Whoever they are, whatever their age or stage, they too need confidence, just as much as you and I need confidence. And as we seek the Lord and we find our true confidence in him, then we can turn around and breathe that into them, over them, speaking life into them. We can believe in them and encourage them that, just like God is at work in our lives and we can be confident in that, we can encourage them that God is at work in their lives and they can be confident of that too. What an amazing truth to speak into our little ones, as they're just beginning to explore and learn and develop as people. What an amazing truth to speak into our elementary kids or our middle schoolers as we're on the way to school or taking them to sports or practice or whatever. What an amazing truth to speak into our high schoolers and our young adults as they're launching out in their various ages and stages. What an amazing truth to speak into other adults around us.
Speaker 1:Just a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to breathe this truth and speak it over of all people my doctor. He knows a million things more than me and yet in one specific area where God has given him a calling, I felt prompted by the Spirit to say be confident, keep pressing in God's working in you, keep leaning into this calling on your life. What an exciting epic of confidence that we get to experience when we trust God, who he is and what he's promised he will do and is doing in our lives. Way better than a song. This is the truth from His Word. So, oh friend, may you be filled with the confidence of the Lord in every aspect of your life today. Spend time with Him, seek Him about confidence, seek Him for your confidence, and then turn around and speak Him into the life of some precious person that he's entrusted to you. So now, go with God and go with confidence. I can't wait to hear the story of the song you sing, because the confidence with which God fills you.
Speaker 2:Be encouraged To get the latest updates about the Family Disciple Me ministry, as well as word about our soon-to-be-released app. Sign up to be the first to know at FamilyDiscipleMeorg. Also, if you enjoyed this podcast, help us get the word out by leaving us a review on your favorite podcast platform. God bless you, friend. Now go seek him. Speak him.