Ten years ago I wrote a little book about the subject of confidence and in it I said that “real” confidence comes from putting our trust in God, instead of in our own abilities. I ended the book by saying that the answer to any problem we have can be found in giving our cares to God.

But, what does that mean? Does that mean God intervenes in our affairs and makes things happen? To be honest, I don’t have a clear answer for that. All I know is that when I let go of stressing about my problems and give those concerns to God, things seem to work out okay. Not perfectly. I don’t get everything I want. Nobody does. At the very least, it gets me out of my own way.

Even if you don’t believe that God intervenes directly in our affairs (which I’m not sure about either) and even if you don’t believe that God gives people certain revelations, releasing your cares to God is still helpful.

It doesn’t mean though, that we should be apathetic or lazy. We can ask God for help, but we also have to help ourselves. Just as faith without good works is dead, faith without helping yourself is also dead.