Skip to main content

No Fear

"For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.  So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord of me his prisoner.  Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God." - 2 Timothy 1:7-8

A few years ago, okay about 10 or 15 years ago, the shirts and stickers with "No Fear" on them were popular.  How many of us as Christians truly have no fear as we walk thru our daily lives?  I'm not talking about a fear of spiders or snakes or something like that.  I mean a fear of sharing the gospel, and our testimony with others.  It's not easy because we don't always know how it will be received but there are multiple places in the scripture where it tells us that suffering for God is gain.  None of us can go out and make someone get saved, nor are we capable of saving anyone ourselves.  Our call as Christians is to simply plant the seed.  Some people will be the dry hard soil, but others will be watered and grow, we don't know which will happen.  The relationship that comes from that will be between that person and God, but we've got to tell them the story.

I used to get really nervous talking in front of people.  Those of you who knew me my first few years of high school may remember how little I talked to people I didn't know.  But now when given the opportunity to talk about Jesus I love the chance.  I still get worked up some and my heart starts beating fast when I'm about to speak but it's more of an excitement than nervousness or fear.  But it's not just those speaking opportunities or posting spiritual quotes on facebook, it's our daily walk and how we talk to people and treat people.  They can see that there's something different about us in our actions more so than our speech. 

Sharing your testimony can be tough.  But it's the easiest story to tell because it's your story.  It's simply the story of where you were before God's grave, and now where you are through what Jesus Christ has done for you.  I used to think you had to know tons of scripture to talk about Jesus but that's not a requirement, it helps but you don't have to memorize the whole Bible or anything.

"He has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time." - 2 Timothy 1:9

With Christ having my back, I believe I can handle anything that comes in my path.  It may not always be easy but I can rest assured that he has a purpose in it and I can trust Him to bring me through it.  Maybe we should bring back the No Fear shirts and stickers and truly live our lives that way.

Tell someone about what Jesus has done for you today!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...

How to Pray - The Object of Our Prayer

In our College & Career Sunday school class this week, we started a series titled, "How to Pray."  I plan to try to and share the lessons each week in case anyone wants to follow along with us here...or you can come join us Sunday mornings at Tabernacle at 10 AM in room 218. Any good speaker, teacher, or presenter knows that the #1 rule of public speaking is to know your audience.  You don't want to prepare a discussion about retirement for preschoolers and a presentation themed with Disney princesses most likely wouldn't spark the interest of a group of businessmen.  In order for someone to prepare a dynamic and engaging presentation, they must know their audience, who they're preparing to talk to. The same is true in our prayer life.  The Point of this week's study is: "A right view of God fuels how we pray."  The conversations we engage in with our friends about are often focused on topics that interest them: their favorite team, favorite ...

Lessons in Prayer - 1 Timothy 2:1-8 - Our Attitudes

I'm still working through this same passage on prayer from 1 Timothy and I won't copy all the verses but you can read from the beginning to have a better understanding of the full passage. "...That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.  This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior." - 1 Timothy 2:2b-3 Paul's plea for Timothy here is for the church to live peaceful and quiet lives.  So how do we do that?  Well the thought of peacefulness is a life that is free from internal disturbances or distractions.  We must first be at peace with ourselves before we can be at peace with others.  A quiet life is one that flows from being peaceful and is a life free from external disturbances and distractions.  Now this does not mean that the church is to just go along with whatever the world says in order to be peaceful.  We are not to waver on biblical truth period.  You won't find true Christian...