Have Courage, & Recognize Not All Failures Are Sinful or From Sin

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(6) For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. (7) For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (8) So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.’ (2 Timothy 1:6-8)

What we often fear is not the action of ‘doing’ (sharing the Word, providing the Gospel, going to see our neighbors), but the fear is what the reaction will be of others resulting in what we do.  There can certainly be rejection, intimidation, and repudiation by others when we discuss Jesus to others.  What we must understand is that we should not take that rejection personal; it is not you who they are rejecting, but Jesus.  They may target you as they see and identify Jesus through you, but it is not personal. 

Jesus knew this would happen, and ran into this himself when in Matthew 8 He placed the ‘Legion’ of evil spirits into the pigs, which they then ran into the sea and drowned, and the Samaritans who lived around there told Jesus to ‘go home’.  Jesus was ridiculed in Galilee by His neighbors as well as His own family.  Nevertheless, Jesus never stopped teaching, healing, or providing Salvation to others. 

Also. part of the fear is the fear that God will reject us if we fail Him or let Him down, as if failure is a sin.  All sin is failure to live according to God’s precepts, but not all ‘failure’ is sin.  We think if someone does not accept Christ as Lord after we share that we have failed, but the fact is that person has failed to grasp the Gospel message of Christ.  When we share, we have done what Jesus asks of us to do per the Great Commission. 

If we do what needs to be done, we have succeeded.  Jesus’ death on the cross was a success, as He accomplished what needed to be done; Stephen getting stoned to death was a success as he continued to speak the Truth, even as he was about to die.  This is what Paul means by wanting us to join him ‘in suffering for the Gospel’; the joy that despite rejection we have succeeded in providing the Lord’s Word to others. 

We sometimes beat ourselves up when we are overcome with a sinful nature; we remorse and feel that we have let God down.  We did let Jesus down, but Jesus does not condemn us but loves us and forgives us.  Sin can be the expectation that God will punish us or is punishing us for transgression when things go wrong, causing anxiety and worry.  As with not all failures are sinful, not all the things that go wrong in our lives is the result of sin in our lives. 

I was working on fixing a cracked sidewalk years ago, and while I was prying up the old slab, the pry bar slipped out of my hands, bounced, and busted a side glass panel on my work car. It was a failure on my part, but it was not due to sin but in planning for potential incidents (I should have moved the car further away). Anxiety and worry are often a lack of Faith, that God will condemn us or that we cannot live up to His expectations.  God knows you cannot live up to His expectations, which is why He provided His Son Jesus to be our Sacrifice.   

God is with us so we do not have to fear.  He will provide us with the strength to stand up to that which we fear when we need to stand firm, and will provide us the means to escape when we need to flee due to fear (like from an attacking grizzly or alligator).  God is always in control!