Being bold about your faith is not easy…
Like most high school, teenage girls could tell you, there are days amongst your peers you would rather not speak to anyone, Let alone share your faith with them. The world we live in now is very self-absorbed and the last thing that any hurting worldly person wants to hear is how there is a God so big and so great. People tend to feel that the presence of a “Big God” minimizes their own problems, and those who live in a life filled with problems, this might question their identity. So the question is, How can I be bold? Even when I don’t want to talk, even when people don’t want to listen. How can I, share my faith in this world so that it can resonate with others?
A simple acronym can shed light onto the path of being bold.
B- Be Bold and Believe~
Have you ever heard someone talking about something they seemed to know nothing about? Did it make it harder to trust their judgment on the topic?
This is the same way. In order to testify to God’s love and mercy in your life, You must BELIEVE in God’s love and mercy and you need to be sure that you do. This starts with evaluating yourself and your life. What kind of life have you led because of God’s mercy? What situation have you been in that God has taken you out? What blessings do you have that you don’t deserve? But the ultimate question is
What price did you pay for the sins you freely commit every day?
And the answer is nothing. If you have no other reason to believe in God’s love and mercy, His son willingly dying on the cross for your sins is definitely a good reason to believe. Knowing and being positive about your Lord and the amazing things he has done for you, will attract people and make them curious about your faith.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ~ John 3:16
O- Be Bold and Overcome~
Today, Society has so many standards to be met, and expectations to be fulfilled for young women. Something we must always remember is that what society perceives as “expected” or “normal” is not always, or more often than not, what the bible asks of us. Societies expectations can be frustrating, they are often unrealistic and are not in agreement with the bible. This can make it hard knowing where we stand as young women in this society. Being unable to rise to the bar of these standards can be extremely detrimental to how we perceive ourselves. Its important that we know who we are in God’s eyes, and to rise above what society wants and start reaching for what God wants. It’s time to empower one another as young women and start putting as much effort into fitting the credentials as women of God, rather than women of this world. It is time to overcome worldly social standards!
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will~ Romans 12:2 NIV
L- Be Bold and Let God~
A flaw of this generation is that we demand control of every aspect of our lives, without control we feel anxiety, nervousness, and frustration. Almost as if we are out of touch with the things in our life. We must learn one simple yet hard lesson~ God is in control! He has this unimaginable overview of our life, he knows what had happened and what’s to come. He sees everything that’s coming your way and sometimes we don’t understand what he is doing but that’s okay, We will never fully understand God and we don’t have to know everything he is doing. Truth is, it is not our territory, Our job is to glorify him and spread his gospel here on earth. Whatever God’s plan may be, it is perfect and we just need to trust it. What God has called over your life is better than anything you could call for yourself. Trust what God has for you, Be bold and let him do what he needs to do in your life!
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus~ Philippians 4:6-7
D- Be Bold and Defeat~
This last point might be the most simple, yet the most difficult. In order to be bold, and step out in faith towards sharing the gospel, we must step away from our past and break the chains that have kept us in stagnant waters. I am a firm believer that our past sculpts and molds us into the person we are today, that God uses even the hardest moments in our lives for his own glory. However, If God has been gracious enough to move you out of your past situations, you must be faithful enough to stop living in them! God doesn’t renew your soul so you can continue to do the things that broke it in the first place. If you haven’t confronted past issues in your life, God is calling you to do so, so that the space it takes up in your heart, can be filled with the presence of God, which empowers us to be bold. The loss of any negative thing in your life, is not a loss, but a victory. Moving on can be hard but the past is the past, the past is defeated, and God hasn’t left anything in the past, that he wouldn’t be able to replace with something better in the future. Only if we are bold and defeat the past, are we able to move on to the blessings in the future.
I pray, that each and every reader will be encouraged to be B.O.L.D, to step out in faith and believe, to overcome, to let God work, and to find the strength to defeat the things of the past. God Bless each of you. I pray for God's perfect will upon your life.
Jalynne Medina