Where do you keep your confidence?

I was going to post a talk that I wrote a few weeks ago for a holiday camp because I got a lot out of it, and then I was going to send a picture that I got a week ago at church, but then I decided what I really wanted to share was what’s currently on my mind.
 
On what are you basing your confidence?  Does your faith rely on your circumstances?  What would you say if you met yourself 30 years from now and you were no longer a Christian?
 
My dad, who has brought me up going to church, who has often led talks, who was always a very strong and committed man of faith, is no longer a Christian.  I found out that he was struggling with things a couple of years ago and this hit me really hard.  It has forced me to stand on my own two feet and figure out where my faith lies.  Despite being a strong Christian family, we were never very open about speaking about our faith together at home; we have never really discussed what God is doing in our lives.  This now makes it more difficult when I want to ask my dad why he no longer believes and what his problems are.  And despite trying to talk to him about it, I always find that I get choked up and can’t get very far.
 
I finally spoke to my mum a bit about it more recently as I didn’t really know where she stood and found out that she had also been very upset by this change, but this is about all I know.  So it’s a slow process to get deep in my family and I struggle to attempt to.
 
But what this has made me do, is be all the more determined to get to know God more myself.  And I am so thankful to being part of a different kind of family at Canterbury Vineyard.  Starting afresh and asking ‘How have we learned Christ?’.  Not getting to know the idea, not the concept, but getting to know the Man.  Seeing how real and alive he is in so many people.  I encourage you all to write down your prayers, then we can see so clearly that God is active and answering.  And as Paul says in Philippians, I try to give all my worries to Him with thanksgiving, as I know that all things are possible through Him.  And not to just get to know one part of the Bible, but to get to know all of it, to see all the different sides to our omnipotent, unconditionally-loving God.  
 
I encourage you all to think about what your faith relies on.  And not only to think, but to write it down.  Can you put it into words?  Would you be able to tell yourself years from now?  And then, as you learn what your confidence is based on and as you learn who you are in Christ, take heart and get active.  We can’t go half way with this guy.