Actually, to be more accurate, my confidence comes from other people.

As much as I love to think I draw my confidence from the Lord, and as much as I'd love to quote you scripture, the sad truth is I often turn to family, friends and—in some cases—acquaintances or online readers for a boost of confidence.

For example, if one of my Christian Today comment pieces has garnered more than 100 likes and/or has made it to the Most Popular list, it has a way of making me feel like the life of the party.

If my piece has zero likes and/or has failed to make it to the Most Popular list that week, I'm ready to quit writing.

When I show up for my weekly swim training session, my thoughts range from 'everyone's going to laugh at you when you attempt the butterfly' to 'you'll never smash out that two kilometres.'

But by the end of the hour-long session, if my swimming instructor says, 'good job, you did well', I feel like I've gone to heaven.

If she says nothing, then I feel like I've done the worst swim in the entire history of my Olympian-wannabe career.

An outsider will quickly point out the little 'feel good' system I have in place to boost my confidence is weak and fallible.

I mean, if I'm to base my confidence on the comments and compliments of others, I'd be running high on good days and wallowing in deep misery on bad days.

A Confidence in God

We can foolishly place our confidence in things like the economy and our jobs, in our friends, or in our relationships. Yet all these things fade away: the economy takes a tumble, taking with it our jobs; we lose touch with friends, and relationships fall apart.

As a Christian, I rejoice knowing I can place my confidence in God because He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8).

The Bible tells us 'it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes' (Psalm chapter 118, verses 8, 9).

To me, God is the equivalent of a bank's big safety vault in which you store your precious jewels. He's strong, dependable and never fails.

With God as our confidence, we know that we can do all things through Him who gives us strength (Philippians chapter 4, verse 13).

This truth has given me the strength to write, month after month, comment pieces for Christian Today, and the courage to show up, week after week, for my swim training sessions.

Michele Ong is a former regional news journalist with a passion to be a voice for the marginalised and disenfranchised. Writing is as essential to her as breathing, and believes words contain life which is to be used to inspire, inform, and influence readers. Michele attends Auckland's City Impact Church with her family on the North Shore.  Michele Ong's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/michele-ong.html This article appears courtesy of Christian Today Australia