Confidence is a function of the mind.
It has to do with how we feel about things and is based upon the general patterns of thought or mental grid that occupies the cortex of the brain. As a feeling or emotion, it is the result of energy impulses, not from God, but generated by the data on the cortex of the brain.
Thus, feelings of confidence will be based on past experiences and the characteristics provided through heredity. Those who have inherited tendencies toward anxiety or have had bad experiences will have a problem with confidence. For example, if one has been severely frightened in childhood by a dog they will have a good deal of difficulty being confident around dogs. Those who have had social problems will have difficulty with confidence in themselves or others, but this has nothing to do with the energy of God or faith as a result of it that is a constant flow in our spirits.
Similarly confidence may be affected by physiological problems.
Chemical imbalance accounts for much in the way of anxiety. When there is a deficiency in the endocrine glands—such as thyroid, adrenal, and gonads—it will result in an inadequate supply of the chemicals we call hormones, which maintain emotional balance. In times of stress, for example, the adrenal glands secrete adrenalin which stimulates the flow of blood and oxygen to the affected areas. Deficiency of adrenalin can result in depression and anxiety (as well as a host of other things). Such depression and anxiety will result in a lack of confidence. This, again, has nothing to do with faith as it pertains to the energy of God within our spirits.
Furthermore, confidence may be affected in many temporary ways by special circumstances, such as physical disorders or personal devastating experiences. Many of these experiences evolve doubts, which are of themselves only temporary uncertainties of the mind and do not reflect the condition of the spirit. Paul speaks of his own weaknesses in the flesh—"For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears" (2 Corinthians 7:5).
Paul had no confidence in his flesh and he did not see his weaknesses in the flesh as a lack of faith, but rather as a source of humility and an instrument to keep him continually relying upon God. It was to him a part of the continuing earthly frustration. Such frustration caused him to cry out in anguish, "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). Paul, by his own confession, was weak and frustrated and wretched, but that did not affect the strength of his inner spirit; which, he said, "was renewed day by day." He had no confidence in his flesh, but was never waning in his faith.
At the end of his life, Paul made his ultimate declaration—"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). He had nothing to say about the numerous churches he had established or souls he had helped. He merely kept on, fighting the battle, and keeping the faith. At the end of his life he had come to no personal position of confidence in his flesh, as we might be after a lifetime of arduous and unstinting service.
The ultimate concept here is that there is a distinction between faith and confidence. Faith, as a gift of God, is an energy process flowing from God through our spirits, enabling us to interact with Him in fellowship and communication. Confidence is a process of the natural mind, accumulating the data of experience together with the predispositions of heredity and reacting to impulses in a proscribed behavior pattern. In other words, we respond to experiences emotionally, based on our given personality traits. Thus, confidence is a feeling very much affected by human personality. Faith is beyond feeling and is a constant part of the new-born spirit nature that we have from God.
For we are [they]… which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians 3:3
