"Even though I am fully aware of what the source of my identity should be as a believer, at the time I picked up this book, I was in a season of paralyzing insecurity. Do you, like me, long to be filled with confidence but find your container a bit leaky? My friend Rebekah Hannah gently and graciously exposes the holes in our faulty thinking--and then patches them with gospel truth that bridges the gap between our heads and our hearts. What emerges is a working theology that actually holds. Bekah disarmingly goes first--laughing at herself, magnifying Christ, and inviting us to stop looking inward for confidence and start receiving it from a source far more secure than ourselves."
--Abbey Wedgeworth, author of Help! I'm Ruining My Kids and the Training Young Hearts series
"As someone who works with teens often and knows quite well the roller-coaster ride of identity formation, this book feels like a breath of fresh air. It puts words to what I aim to communicate. I'm grateful for Bekah's gentle yet clear reminder that our identity can never be in performance, experience, or role; instead, we must root ourselves in the Giver of our identity. This book helps readers better understand what that means in everyday life and the freedom it brings as we place our confidence in Christ."
--Kristin L. Kellen, EdD, PhD, associate professor of biblical counseling, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
"If you have ever felt unconfident, identity confused, or hopelessly messed up, here is a book to gently guide you to what will steady your heart and compel you toward a life of purpose. Rebekah Hannah's new book, The Secret to Confidence, opened my eyes to fresh insights about my identity and union with Jesus that caused deep biblical truths to somehow drop down more deeply into my heart. I hope it will for you too!"
--Ellen Mary Dykas, Bible teacher and author of Toxic Relationships: Taking Refuge in Christ
"Like a skilled artist, Rebekah Hannah adds rich depth to our understanding of identity in Christ. She invites us to not only see but also to savor the confidence that becomes ours as we rest in who Christ is and what he has done. Through engaging stories, wise insights, and biblical clarity, Rebekah consistently brings us back to what matters most: True confidence is not found in self-assurance but in a personal, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ."
--Jonathan D. Holmes, executive director, Fieldstone Counseling
"Modern identity creation is exhausting, while having our identity in Christ often feels like a tired trope shaped by our desire for self-esteem. Using honest, authentic stories, Hannah anchors the static idea of identity in the dynamic reality of Jesus. She moves us from simply knowing the theological position to experiencing the relief of active confidence in the only Person who determines our stability when we cannot."
--Dr. Michael Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church-Lincoln Square
"My friend Bekah Hannah shows how our endless quest for identity--even when infused with good theology--becomes an emotional black hole that is never satisfied. She offers a better way, helping us break free from the self-focused search for identity so we can root our confidence in Christ, the immovable anchor of our souls. Read this book slowly and prayerfully, allowing the gospel truth within it to read you."
--Brian Walker, director of operations, Anchored Virtual
"Rebekah Hannah reminds us that confidence is not found by looking inward, but instead by fixing our eyes on the person and work of Jesus Christ. With humility and humor, she weaves biblical insight and counseling wisdom into an accessible, practical, and richly pastoral resource. I read The Secret to Confidence during a season of sorrow and discouragement--I was convicted, challenged, comforted, and ultimately led to a renewed confidence in Christ. I believe you will be too."
--Eric M. Schumacher, author of The Good Gift of Weakness: God's Strength Made Perfect in the Story of Redemption
FOREWORD by Ed Welch
Think of this book as identity 2.0. Many of us have read about our identity in Jesus, and we have been inspired. But, too often, that identity feels just out of reach. If we keep trying, perhaps we’ll get it. Other people seem to be thriving in it, so we must be missing something or slow to catch on. If we keep saying that our value is in Christ, the never-being-enough feeling might finally recede. The alternative is that maybe we really are failures, and we just have to learn to live with it. That is where this book begins.
Identity can be elusive. It’s not quite the same with confidence―you know it when you see it. Some people seem to come by it naturally; others must have access to something sturdy, such as the security of a parent or spouse or competencies that assure them that they are up for the job.
From this small yet hopeful starting point, all of Scripture is eager to direct you to the Confidence of confidences. The Refuge, the Trust. The One who is a secure dwelling and a quiet resting place. It is God’s desire that you know him as your confidence, which means that you can hold him to it. You can ask that he blesses you with it, and you keep asking until you notice that it takes hold. That is where author Rebekah Hannah will partner with you in what is ahead.
The key is to hold loosely those things within yourself or your world that are sources of confidence. They are not necessarily bad. Many of them are gifts, and among them are those who love you well. They are intended to bless, encourage, and be enjoyed. They were never intended to be your confidence. So, you will be asked to identify those people and things that receive your trust. The experience of ancient Israel will help. They trusted in money and storehouses, which are the ancient equivalent of insurance policies. They trusted in their strength, their king, their family, their wits, and their ability to attract others. They trusted that they were somebody. With those confidences identified, the people were reminded of how God loved them when they were quite small. “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). Then comes the satisfying process of divesting ourselves from false confidences and knowing God in Christ who introduces himself as if Confidence were another name by which we can come to him.
That is the gist of this book. For me, it reached into everyday life. It is hopeful, always helpful.
Ed Welch, PhD,
counselor and faculty member at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation
