BOLD AS A LION

"Bold as a Lion" 


In the book of Proverbs we read: "...the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1).  The lion is called "king of the beasts."   He is afraid of nothing.

One reason the gospel spread so dramatically in the first century was the boldness of those early Christians.  The apostle Paul asked the church at Ephesus to pray for him that he might speak boldly, as he ought (Ephesians 4:13). 
 
The 1800's and early 1900's saw the rapid spread of the restoration plea across this nation and throughout the world.  One reason?  The distinct boldness that characterized its preachers and proclaimers.  What movement or cause has ever attracted a significant following without boldness?!  During the dark days of World War II, when England was being bombed to smithereens, Winston Churchhill preached, "Courage is a virtue that makes other virtues possible."  He was right.  The noblest convictions are suspect and ineffective if they are kept timidly hidden away, unspoken, unpracticed. So the apostle Paul said, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear (timidity--NIV)" (2 Timothy 1:7).  How will boldness for the cause of Christ influence you and me?
    
First, it will influence us to do right when others are doing wrong.  It takes boldness, courage, to be different from the world.  Daniel knew the risk of praying.  The king's decree was that all who did would be thrown to the lions.  He prayed anyway.  The pressure was on. Would he compromise?  In fact, he was "bold as a lion."  All of us, young and old, have experienced the pressure of friends, even family, to do wrong. The challenge is to reach down and come up with a boldness and a courage that refuses to allow wrong to intimidate us and do right anyway.  It must not be the world but the Word that guides, shapes, directs and determines what we do (Romans 12:2).
 
Second, it will influence us to speak up and out when others are silent. I saw the following on a church's sign once:  It's often true that "silence is golden."  But sometimes its just plain yellow.  Those early Christians were bold to speak out. They "went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:4; cf. Acts 4:3 1). The leaders of the Jews marveled at the boldness of Peter and John (Acts 4:13).  They weren't embarrassed to be Christians, but said so boldly in the name of Christ (Acts 9:27, 29).
 
What is the source of such boldness?  Christ!  "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him" (Ephesians 3:12). Have you been baptized into Christ (Romans 6:3)?  Are you walking (living) in him (Colossians 2:6)?
                                                                                                                    --Stephen Rook
                                                                                                    
  


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