Confidence

Having great confidence in the Lord is truly justified. Other people’s confidence in us must also be truly justified for it to make any sense.

Demanding the confidence of others is completely meaningless. It is a declaration of bankruptcy. On the contrary, we must by our exemplary life and our sincere and good ministry cause others to have confidence in us.

It is particularly confidence-inspiring that we are always good, gentle, forbearing, and longsuffering, and that it is plainly noticeable that we always have hope and faith for their salvation and progress although the outlook is not very good.

Everyone is used to “getting a beating” from childhood until adulthood, encountering hardness, criticism, and contradiction on all their ways. This is precisely why the opposite has a drawing, beneficial, and confidence-inspiring effect.

How prudent it is to make every effort to acquire these glorious qualities. “Before exaltation [being a leader] is the fear of the Lord, but hardness and arrogance is to reject exaltation.” Ecclus. 10:21. This also means: losing confidence as a leader.