For Those Who Have Been Living Small Lately, But Are Now Ready to Break Out in Bold Faith

As the dawn breaks and we all stretch, as if stiff-legged bears, coming out of our caves after a long winter…

Much has changes.

Snow geese cover the long-since plowed fields, as if angels decended, upon the muddied soil of our well-picked hearts.

Do we notice the rivers, once mild and molded, now spilling out, uncontained, overflowing their rich silt upon everything aound them?

Have we looked at the flooding and condemned and cursed it? When the very waters that ruined our houses, have overtaken our land, is the the same gift that will help to bring growing?

A harvest is coming, like we’ve never seen before.

Last nights sky was covered in stars. As we walked our daughter to her car, my husband points up…

“Look up! Do you see the stars?”

And while, my eyes are often forward thinking, he reminded me, a host of heavenly lights are blinking…

Why is it, I so often miss them?

The story goes, in Peru, where my husband is from, there was a night when he looked up and every inch of sky was covered in lights.

So many stars, the darkness was smothered with beauty.

And I wonder, when clouds come, when nights are long, do we miss the twinkling of heaven because we fail to look up?

Bombs blast a world away. One crisis ends, another comes ragging in, like some sequel to a bad movie…Or a book that just doesn’t end.

And yet, we know the Author of all Life. We know the hand that guides when terror strikes, and evil men sufficate hope intentionally.

My Bible opens to Paul, once Saul, sharing his testimony in Acts.

It was a day of persecution, yet Scripture says, “Paul & Silas spoke out PLAINLY and BOLDLY…” (Acts 13:46)

Where are the mouthpieces today? Where are the bellowing soundboxes for God?

Have they shrunk in the rubble of distractions and confusion?

Paul & Silas’ witness was from the Lord. It wasn’t conjured up, manufactured, pre-meditated in their own hearts, creating some platform for their own name.

Verse 46, “The Lord has charged us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light of the Gentiles, (the heathen) that you may bring [eternal] salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.” 

It was a mandate from Isaiah 49:6, they were repeating.

A vessel, to be used in the night, like a light in the darkness. A voice while so many were voiceless.  A light, a force, bringing salvation to many.

Then, persecution….And more persecution.

Paul was beaten almost to death and dragged out of town. But the disciples formed a circle about him. (Acts 14:20)

True light never dies. God’s glory doesn’t fade. Divine power doesn’t dim in light of evil or persecution.

Then, Paul got up and went back to preaching again.

Scripture tells us, “the disciples were continually FILLED [throughout their souls] with JOY AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.” (Acts 13:52)

Are we continously filled with His Spirit?

Or are we filled with our feed from Facebook and Instagram. Are we clothed with power from on High? Or do we hide in comfortable buildings, binging Netflix?

Are we a radiant representatives of Christ, set on a hill, shining for His glory? Or do we fear what may come, living small lives, because we fear ridicule and persecution?

I have to admit….I have been living small, lately.

Small, held between the tensions of obedience and rebellion. Small, between wanting to be a “good Christian”, while hiding the fire inside me for the comfort of other people.

I have cowered to the news, the media, a world that spreads fears like some disease, more than it fears the power of the Living God, and His return that will bring justice to the earth.

I have shiften my head downward, when the clouds are thick and I can’t see the stars, when the bombs are loud and the crowd gets annoying, when my own sorrows drown me and I miss those who’ve gone before me…

But, I want to be like Paul. I want to live with a holy fever that doesn’t live in past revivals, but burns with more than embers, the flames of my very own heart.

Acts, Chapter 14, verse 3 says, “[Paul and Silas] stayed on there for a long time, speaking FREELY, and FEARLESSLY, and BOLDLY in the Lord.”

Not only did they SPEAK, but they “continued to bear testimony to the Word of His grace, granting signs and wonders performed by their hands.”

Under the stars, a world a way, I hear about healings. God moving on behalf of a people who are desperate, abandoned, and needy.

And yet, here, we convene with our expensive Starbucks, our luxury cars that warm our seats, and at a click of a button, we don’t thnk, but move brainlessly forward on cruise control.

How many of us have been living on cruise control, these past few years?

Trusting the four-wheeled horse of government or public opinion? Going along as if quiet submission will spread the Gospel in Flames?

Oh, how I long to be Paul and Silas; bold, unafraid, burning with a flame so bright, it lights up the nights sky and you can’t see the darkness.

The soil is drenched with recent flooding.

Is it a sign, the very thing, we found comfort to contain, is about to pour out wide, deep, all over a land, as it nourishes, in preparation for the harvest?

It’s time for the Harvest.

“How will people call on Him who they have not believed? And how will they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher (Messenger)?” (Romans 10:14)

Beatings and shipwrecks, imprisonments and floggings did not stop Paul from preaching the Gospel, from being the Light.

So, why do I hide in my castles made of sand?

Oh God, fill us with fire from heaven. Power from on High. Glory through this dark seasons. For, we want to be your mouthpiece, tell of your wonderful testimony…

See you move through our hands, bringing healing to the nations.

Give us boldness to preach your name, be your light, shine like stars, believe you reign…In all seasons, but especially now.

How might you tell of Jesus?

How might we live the Gospel more profound and boldly, today?

Time is short. It’s time to get to work. People need to hear. And how will they know, if we do not tell them?

Let’s stop, point to the heaven, and remind them, there is a God who is filled with love and grace. A God who knows them and calls them by name.

 

(If you are reading this and don’t know the living God, I invite you to call on Him. Submit to Him your past life and step into the door of His heart, through grace. 

We don’t have to be perfect to know Him. We don’t have to wait until our lives are all together, to recognize there is a God who loves us. 

Just like an earthly parent loves their child, regardless of what they have done…In the same way, God loves you. Confess your sins. Give Him your heart. He will give you peace and you will never be the same again.)