OWN IT!

You don't own it until you experience it!

Owning Boldness

Paul asked for prayers from his brothers and sisters to be bold in preaching the gospel. Phil Robertson’s podcast is called Unashamed. Phil was the modern-day poster child for a bold Christian lifestyle. You might think “bold” would turn people off, and it will turn some people off, but Phil’s life proved otherwise. His candor and willingness to tell the truth out of a heart of love for others and a recognition of his own history drew people to his and Miss Kay’s door. Boldness is not brashness. His boldness was respectful, but blunt. The two ways presented by Jesus, one leading to life and the other to destruction, is the meat and potatoes of boldness. The wishy-washy people of the world beat around the proverbial bush when it comes to the two ways. We do no one a favor when it comes to their eternal destiny to be vague. Speaking truth in love and with grace is to be like Jesus. Boldness must be mixed with compassion for the sinner to be effective. When you add the words “in love” to the phrase “speaking truth” you are not watering down speaking the truth. It is not whether we speak truth; it is how we speak truth.

The opposite of boldness is timidity. Paul instructed Timothy to get over his timidity which was born out of fear of consequences of speaking truth. For those first-century Christian boldness could get them killed. For we modern Christians in America, it might get us cancelled or shunned but rarely killed. We are more afraid of what will happen if we say something about following Jesus, than we are about what will happen if we do not say something. So how do we own boldness? I think it is like bungy jumping. We can take a class on it, watch a video of others doing it, buy and try on the harness, purchasing the ticket to the platform, and stand on the edge looking down, but until we let go of the rail and plunge head-first into it we will not own it. The ingredients for boldness are a lost person and a Christian who has enough love in their hearts to open their mouths and speak the name of Jesus. YOU DON’T OWN IT UNTIL YOU EXPERIENCE IT.