Boldness Part 5

BOLDNESS
Vineyard Church NW - Jody Burgin

BOLDNESS vs. Fearfulness
Courageously saying or doing what is true, right, and just
“I will…”



not be afraid to speak the truth.
support others when they are right.
be willing to stand alone.
fear God not man.

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For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:6-7



To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.



Want to know the shortest route to ineffectiveness? Start running scared. Try to cover every base at all times. Become paranoid over your front, your flanks, and your rear. Think about every possible peril, focus on the dangers, concern yourself with the “what ifs” instead of the “why nots?” Take no chances. Say no to courage and yes to caution. Expect the worst. Play your cards close to your vest. Let fear run wild. “To him who is in fear,” said Sophocles, “everything rustles.” Keep yourself safely tucked away in the secure nest of inaction. And before you know it, paralysis will set in. So will loneliness, and finally isolation. No thanks.



How much better to take on a few ornery bears and lions, like David did. They ready us for giants like Goliath. How much more thrilling to step out into the Red Sea like Moses and watch God part the waters. How much more interesting to set sail for Jerusalem, like Paul, “not knowing what will happen to me there,” than to spend one’s days in monotonous Miletus, listening for footsteps and watching dull sunsets.



Happily, not all have opted for safety. Some have overcome, regardless of the risks. Some have merged into greatness despite adversity. They refuse to listen to their fears. Disabilities and disappointments need not disqualify! As Ted Engstrom insightfully writes:



Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he’ll never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham – who set the world’s one-mile record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver … Call him a slow learner, “retarded,” and write him off as uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein.



Tell your fears where to get off. Otherwise your breakthrough living is elusive. Effectiveness – sometimes greatness – awaits those who refuse to run scared.



Lord, nothing will distract me from worshipping and serving you today. Nothing will frighten me … nothing from yesterday’s past, today’s present, or tomorrow’s future. Nothing – with you by my side.