By nature, I am not brave and unashamed when it comes to sharing my faith in Jesus. Although I know Jesus commands us to \u201cgo…and make disciples\u201d (Matthew 28:19), conflicting thoughts race through my head:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What if I come across as pushy?
Should I avoid talk of God for fear of offending others?
If they were interested, wouldn\u2019t they ask me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t want people to come to know the Lord\u2014I do! The love of Jesus and the joy of spending eternity with Him is what I hope for the whole world. However, when it comes to actually sharing the gospel, intimidation and fear boast loud in my heart and mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Acts 4, we see that Peter and John were taken into custody for preaching the name of Jesus in Solomon\u2019s Colonnade. The two men, along with the other disciples, had recently watched Jesus\u2019s death and resurrection unfold. Now they were beginning to carry the mantle of sharing the good news of Jesus with the world, and that mantle was heavy. Peter had once denied Jesus three times to save his own skin. How could the same man who sank into the sea for lack of faith be the same man who now spoke boldly to thousands?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit…\u201d (Peter 4:8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fear would have been a natural response for Peter and John after they were arrested for proclaiming Christ. Instead, we see Peter become filled with the Holy Spirit and increase in boldness, preaching the name of Jesus to the rulers and elders. It was not willpower that brought Peter courage; it was his empowerment through the Holy Spirit. Peter and John took the fear and intimidation wielded against them and traded it for Holy Spirit strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a world that finds the message of the gospel irrelevant at best and offensive at worst, we may have many reasons to fear sharing our faith. However, the truth remains: There is no other name by which we are saved. Jesus is the hope of the world. And we are the ones who carry that message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus calls us to proclaim His name to the world, and He gives us all we need to obey that call. We, too, can share our faith with others when we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. In Peter and John we see two men who did not shrink back but used their voices with God-given power and authority. My prayer for us all is that when our fears are loud, we remember that God has equipped us with His strength, courage, and grace to proclaim one name: Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By nature, I am not brave and unashamed when it comes to sharing my faith in Jesus. Although I know Jesus commands us to \u201cgo…and make disciples\u201d (Matthew 28:19), conflicting thoughts race through my head: What if I come across as pushy?Should I avoid talk of God for fear of offending others?If they were interested, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":72917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acts26"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[73104],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"NO OTHER NAMES<\/b>
\r\nby Sarah Wood<\/i>
\r\n
By nature, I am not brave and unashamed when it comes to sharing my faith in Jesus. Although I know Jesus commands us to \u201cgo...and make disciples\u201d (Matthew 28:19), conflicting thoughts race through my head:<\/p>
\r\n
What if I come across as pushy?
\r\nShould I avoid talk of God for fear of offending others?
\r\nIf they were interested, wouldn\u2019t they ask me?<\/p>
\r\n
It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t want people to come to know the Lord\u2014I do! The love of Jesus and the joy of spending eternity with Him is what I hope for the whole world. However, when it comes to actually sharing the gospel, intimidation and fear boast loud in my heart and mind.<\/p>
\r\n
In Acts 4, we see that Peter and John were taken into custody for preaching the name of Jesus in Solomon\u2019s Colonnade. The two men, along with the other disciples, had recently watched Jesus\u2019s death and resurrection unfold. Now they were beginning to carry the mantle of sharing the good news of Jesus with the world, and that mantle was heavy. Peter had once denied Jesus three times to save his own skin. How could the same man who sank into the sea for lack of faith be the same man who now spoke boldly to thousands?<\/p>
\r\n
\u201cThen Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit...\u201d (Peter 4:8).<\/p>
\r\n
Fear would have been a natural response for Peter and John after they were arrested for proclaiming Christ. Instead, we see Peter become filled with the Holy Spirit and increase in boldness, preaching the name of Jesus to the rulers and elders. It was not willpower that brought Peter courage; it was his empowerment through the Holy Spirit. Peter and John took the fear and intimidation wielded against them and traded it for Holy Spirit strength.<\/p>
\r\n
In a world that finds the message of the gospel irrelevant at best and offensive at worst, we may have many reasons to fear sharing our faith. However, the truth remains: There is no other name by which we are saved. Jesus is the hope of the world. And we are the ones who carry that message.<\/p>
\r\n
Jesus calls us to proclaim His name to the world, and He gives us all we need to obey that call. We, too, can share our faith with others when we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. In Peter and John we see two men who did not shrink back but used their voices with God-given power and authority. My prayer for us all is that when our fears are loud, we remember that God has equipped us with His strength, courage, and grace to proclaim one name: Jesus.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"4","scripture":"Acts 4:1-22, Isaiah 45:5-7, 1 John 5:12","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}