“I’m calling on the God of David
Who made a shepherd boy courageous
I may not face Goliath
But I’ve got my own giants…”
~Elevation Worship, “Same God”
I texted a new friend last week to check in on her and ask her how she was doing and what God was teaching her. As we chatted about that, I reflected privately on what God has been teaching me. And I realized that it could be summed up into one word: boldness.
I met this new friend just because I was bold enough in the moment to ask her what she was reading in the Bible when I stopped off to pay a bill for my husband. This sweet lady is someone I’ve chatted with about the superficial things in life (“the weather and everyone’s health” to quote Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady) when I see her roughly once a month to pay this bill. But this time, I listened to the nudge when I saw her Bible sitting open and initiated a conversation that I believe I can safely say blessed both of us.
If I had ignored the nudge, I would have missed the blessing. She was at her everyday job, and I was doing one of those everyday tasks, and yet because I listened, we suddenly went deeper in each other’s lives and she began asking some hard questions about a topic that I had recently studied and was fresh in my memory. All because I was bold enough to answer the nudge of God.
Boldness is not something that comes naturally to me. To paint a better portrait of myself, I am an ISJF (Myers-Briggs type), an Enneagram 9, and a Hufflepuff homebody (you can Google search those types and read about them if they aren’t familiar to you). My comfort zone was an organized little bubble for a long time, and even when it started expanding, off-the-cuff speaking was not something that came easily for me.
But just as God made the little shepherd boy David courageous enough to stand in front of Goliath and take him down, He is working in my life to make me courageous enough to step up and speak out loud the wisdom His Spirit gives.
In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John are arrested and thrown into prison by the Sanhedrin for speaking to and teaching the people about Jesus. They question them, and hear Peter’s words as he speaks to them, full of the Holy Spirit.
And then verse 13: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
I find great hope in this verse. For, by comparison to a lot of others, I too am “unschooled” and “ordinary.”
In reality, the church is full of ordinary people. We have different gifts and different stories and yet one thing unites us and draws us together: Jesus.
Each one of us has a different giant that we face. Mine doesn’t look like yours. Yet the world needs your boldness in spite of your giants. It needs you to stand up, where you are, and share your story and what’s on your heart.
Time spent with Jesus gave Peter and John the boldness they needed to share Jesus. So if you are not feeling bold, start there: spend time with Jesus. And see what spending time with Him can do. Likely, He will lead you to places you never imagined.
Blessings,
~Lynne
Leave a Reply