“Believe in yourself.”

If you want to hang this inspirational phrase on your wall, wear it on your body, use it for your lock screen, or stick it on your water bottle, you’re in luck:

These are five immediate results I found on a recent image search for “believe in yourself.” They’re nice ideas, aren’t they? It’s good to believe in ourselves, to have self-confidence and stay focused, to have self-esteem and a “growth mindset.” Surely that kind of positive determination will serve us well in life, setting us on the path to achieving our dreams. It’s likely you’ve even seen evidence of this in your own life or in the lives of others.

Why, then, is “believe in yourself” an idea you won’t find, in any form, in the Bible? Why does Jesus, in all his words of wisdom, never once even remotely hint at anything like the ideas above?

Instead of believing in ourselves, Jesus tells us to believe in him. Instead of trusting our own hearts, he says to trust in God. Instead of believing that we are enough for the world, he says that he is enough for us.

“But,” you may say, “when you say, ‘believe in yourself or trust in God’—isn’t that a false dilemma? I think I can do both. In fact, I think I ought to do both—believe in myself and trust in God!”

Okay, yes. You can do both. For a while.

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“Get out of your comfort zone.” We hear it all the time, from friends, family, business leaders, church leaders, and actually, the whole rest of the world, it seems. But I’m going to encourage you here to do just the opposite: to find your comfort zone and stay in it.

Not all the time, of course. Sometimes, in order to grow and really see what you’re capable of, you do need to get out of your comfort zone. You sometimes need to try new things and stretch yourself, even if it’s difficult or feels awkward at first.

But there are reasons why you have a “sweet spot” of abilities or endeavors where you feel competent, confident, and thoroughly content with whatever it is that you’re doing. You’re comfortable there, and you’re in the zone. It’s your comfort zone.

Your comfort zone might be:

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Why adding one word changes everything—and not in a good way.

I first heard it in a Disney movie a few years ago, in a song from Frozen 2: “Do the next right thing.” More recently I’ve seen this phrase on posters, t-shirts, and used by addiction recovery groups.

In Frozen 2, “Do the next right thing” is sung by a character in despair over her bleak future: she is trapped in a cave and has just lost a good friend. I was empathetic to her plight … but when she sang that line, my mind instantly rebelled.

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To hear the world tell it, it’s all about me.

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