Boldness

"Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness." Acts 4:29


A book I finished over Christmas talked about this passage, and it's the one that's been sticking in my brain. Boldness. Is that what you pray for? It was an interesting prayer. The Disciples were in uncharted waters. They were trying to spread the gospel and under heavy persecuation and durress, and they prayed for boldness. Not protection, not wisdom, not to be safe. Boldness. It seems to be the last thing we would pray for, but it was the first thing the first Disciples prayed for. After their prayer, the place they were meeting shook and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then it says they spoke the word boldly. They got what they asked for.

What are you praying for? The thing I like about that prayer for boldness is that it puts the burden on us. It's really like praying, "Lord, help me be the very best me I can be to bring you glory. Change me. Empower me." I think our victim-focused society has put so much of our focus on others and their actions that we've lost some of the focus we should have on our actions. We're worried about what everyone else is doing when we should be worrying about what God is calling us to do. If God grants us boldness, then why do we care what outside influences do? I'll bet you've got an area in your life that you're praying about a lot of moving parts. What if you prayed for boldness? What if you prayed for God to use you to be your best you to bring Him glory in that situation?