Confidence vs Courage

This week my pastor talked about renewing confidence in God and in moving forward. During his talk, he pointed out the differences between courage and confidence and it struck me.

I have often interchanged confidence with courage in my mind and hadn't really thought about the differences before.
Courage is guts; mental toughness to face people, problems and challenges
Confidence is feeling all will work out well; rooted in trust and growing out of experience

Courage often comes first before confidence. Confidence rises out of experience.
So one starts with courage and trust in God and through experience and enduring through tough challenges, you develop character and grow confidence.

What encouragement and hope.

Romans 5:3-4 MSG

 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.