Boldness

“The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” Proverbs 28:1

“Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.” Ecclesiastes 8:1

“Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.” Mark 15:43

“But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?” John 7:26

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

“And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.” Acts 4:29-31

“But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him.” Acts 9:27, 29

“And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” Acts 18:26

“And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Acts 19:8

“Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” Acts 13:46

“But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.” Romans 10:20

“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” Ephesians 3:12

“And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Ephesians

“And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” Philippians 1:14

“According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” Philippians 1:20

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The other day my attention was drawn to Proverbs 28:1. It’s been awhile since I’ve read through Proverbs and was glad for the opportunity to ponder this verse.

It goes without saying that we, God’s people, are starting to feel the squeeze. It’s coming on two fronts: nationally and religiously. Our nation is crumbling under imposed mandates that defy common sense and logic. Our churches are buckling under imposed mandates that defy biblical wisdom and biblical imperatives.

The transformation that has swept the societal and biblical landscape is staggering to behold. It would make some sort of sense if it took decades, rather than months, to virtually turn everything upside down and inside out.

We are becoming a nation of cowering individuals constantly living under man-made orchestrated fear tactics. And we, who believe in the Sovereignly Omnipotent God, are being transformed into a collective body bereft of personal biblical wisdom. So much so that, we are paralyzed as how to proceed in the midst of a lost and fallen society.

As a matter of fact …

We’re just as dumb, if not dumber, than the world we’re mandated to bring light to in the midst of its darkness. Instead, we’re groping around like we’re guided by a penlight rather than the Light Of The World.

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Are you a little ashamed as an American? I am. What has happened to us as a nation?

And …

Are you a little ashamed as a believer? I am. What has happened to us as the church of the living God?

Well I have a thought on that …

I’m not going to focus on the national aspect. Bottom line, that’s not my concern. Our nation is gone and this is all just further evidence of that. We are under the judgment of Almighty God, period.

I am though going to focus on us. Here’s my take …

In a word, we have lost our — BOLDNESS

We have not only lost our boldness, we have willingly forsaken our boldness. And with that, we have forgotten what it means to be bold.

Let me give you the definition of boldness from Webster’s 1828 dictionary. Hopefully it will smack you upside the head at least a little.

“BOLDNESS, noun Courage; bravery; intrepidity; spirit; fearlessness. I cannot, with Johnson, interpret this word by fortitude or magnanimity. boldness does not, I think, imply the firmness of mind, which constitutes fortitude, nor the elevation and generosity of magnanimity.

1. Prominence; the quality of exceeding the ordinary rules of scrupulous nicety and caution; applied to style, expression, and metaphors in language; and to figures in painting, sculpture and architecture.

2. Freedom from timidity; liberty.

Great is my boldness of speech towards you. 2 Corinthians 7:4.

3. Confidence; confident trust.

We have boldness and access with confidence. Ephesians 3:12.

4. Freedom from bashfulness; assurance; confident mien.

5. Prominence; steepness; as the boldness of the shore.

6. Excess of freedom, bordering on impudence.” (Highlights are mine)

That’s quite the definition.

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Above I listed verses that speak directly to the issue of, and need for, boldness. There’s a good chance you just skimmed over them. Don’t. It’s God’s Word that can change us, not man’s words.

Meditate upon the verses. Question yourself in relation to the verses. What do they say or not say about you?

We need to face our true condition under the spotlight of verses such as these. For if we don’t, we’ll just go on lying to ourselves about our true spiritual vivaciousness. The hardest thing to do is be honest with ourselves concerning what the Bible reveals about us. But that is what it’s meant to do. If we didn’t need the scrutinizing gaze of God’s Word into our lives, He wouldn’t have given it to us in the first place.

Are you “bold as a lion”? Am I? Would you be bold even knowing that some might want to “slay” you? (Acts 9:29) Would I?

These are questions we need to be asking ourselves, regularly. Why? Because if we aren’t in a constantly increasing stage of development, becoming what God wants us to be, we won’t be what we need to be when confronted by the forces of evil — be they on the national or the spiritual level.

The issues we are now confronting in real time are pushing us to take spiritual inventory. Fear is a very potent enemy. Fear from without. Fear from within. But unless we are confronted, we won’t really know our true mettle.

How are you standing up to today’s real time issues? Caving? Submitting? Placating? Compromising? In the depth of your deepest consciousness — what are you seeing? Do you like it? A little embarrassed? A little ashamed?

If so — GOOD.

We all need to realize, and accept, that fear is tangibly and palpably real. And because of our humanity, fear is natural, normal. But what counts is how we confront it. Do you get stymied by it or emboldened? What we see in the verses above is that boldness is to be the norm, not the exception.

Remember the words of Paul to Timothy. — “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

The spirit of fear isn’t from God; it’s from the other spirit source — Satan. Satan’s goal is to defeat us. One of his choice weapons is fear. That’s, in part, why the Bible repeatedly encourages us to not fear. Fear is crippling, deadly, and eternally damning.

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

That verse is powerful. One of the last cautions in the Word of God relates to the overwhelming fear that endangers a person’s eternal destiny. Fear is a serious matter with eternal ramifications.

But praise God, He hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. Knowing that, we can draw upon Him and His strength in time of need.

“Let us therefore come BOLDLY unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

Amen.

Let’s do it!