Last week, I was reminded of the tremendous power of love when it comes to building confidence and motivation. God’s Love has the ability to transform the way we think and act, allowing us to become confident in our own abilities and the abilities of those around us.
I experienced this firsthand while watching my son play cricket while listening to a song called ‘The Blood’ by Bethel. As the bridge played in my earphones and I heard the lyrics, “It’s never been about performance, perfection, or striving for acceptance; let me tell you, It’s only by the Blood,” I was struck by the realisation I didn’t need to intervene, where at that moment, I thought my intervention would be helpful! I realised that I was trying to intervene in my son’s match out of fear of not being accepted or chosen by the new coaches. I realised that I was living out my own insecurities through my son’s sports performance!
I decided to encourage him, and then sit down and watch him perform to the best of his abilities knowing that he would do his best with me just cheering him on! I also realized that if God loves me as much as I love Michael (and we know that God loves us way more than we can love our children), I, too, could be confident about anything because of His love for me!
How often do we try to correct others from a position of striving and not from a place of love? Correction is reasonable and necessary, but we must ask a few questions about how and why we bring intervention. The next time you need to intervene, ask, “Am I correcting from a position of confidence or fear?” If it is true that there is no fear in love, then fear might indicate that we might need some more love! I believe that healthy correction can only occur when we have first rested in God’s love for ourselves and asked Him what He feels for us!
The second question is, how do we correct in love? When His Presence lifts our confidence, we no longer see the need to intervene in someone else’s actions because of what we fear would happen when they don’t ‘x&y.’ Instead, we should be excited about them possibly doing ‘a&b.’ The focus shifts from what they are missing to what they have to give!
So let us rest in God’s love for us, and then let’s be confident that we are correcting or intervening from a place of love when required. In doing so, we will conquer kingdoms, administer justice and obtain God’s promised blessings for our lives!
Remember:
- Love is powerful in building confidence and motivation.
- Our own insecurities can influence the way we act towards others.
- To correct in love, we must first rest in God’s love for ourselves.
- Correction from a place of fear might indicate a need for more love.
- When confident in God’s love, our focus shifts from others’ shortcomings to their strengths.