Day 2042 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Proverbs 29:25 NIV

Ok, last one on this idea. For a while at least. I promise! I think one of the biggest things that holds us back from being who God made us and sharing the message He's entrusted us with is that we know it isn't popular. And our world is thoroughly enthralled with being popular. Popularity is the new drug of the masses, so doing or saying anything that isn't widely accepted brings this fear of being labeled an outcast or freak.

So we let the fear of those around us keep us from sharing the message of the One who loves us. We don't talk about Christ because the world doesn't like His kind of truth. They don't like this idea of sin and how some things are just wrong to say, think, or do. Everybody just wants to do what they want, and God's way just doesn't jive well with that kind of thinking.

Fear of man prevents us from fearing God. Worrying about saying something that makes someone else angry can keep us from telling them the truth. We don't want to hurt feelings, so we pick and choose our words so that they don't hit as hard. But we have no room to translate the Gospel so that it's easier for people to take. Our job isn't to make Christ acceptable to the world around us. It's to point the world around us to Him and help them understand that the ways of this place aren't acceptable to Him.

The first step of fixing a problem is to realize there's a problem. If we water everything down so that it seems like everything's okay, then nobody is ever going to try to address the problems in their life. And that's just not good enough. We are here to to serve Christ and help Him reach out to those who need His love and healing. Worrying about what anyone else wants or prefers to hear doesn't fit in this equation.

As we've been talking about for a few days now, Christ has saved our lives and given us this message of salvation to carry out into the world and share with others. Nothing can become more important than that. Not being popular or accepted. Not mincing words to make the truth less harsh. Not getting distracted by all the other things that other people are focused on. We've got a truly crucial job to do, and we cannot risk leaving it undone.

Don't let the fear of letting others down, being misunderstood, or even called names keep you from being who God made you and doing what He put you here to do. Can you imagine your life without ever hearing the truth that the Gospel teaches us? I can't and don't want to. And that's precisely why we can't let the fear of man or other worldly distractions keep us from pointing others to Christ. He saved us, and He will do the same for everyone else. We just need to tell them the truth, no matter what!

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