For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Memory Verse: For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26.
Personally I will like to assume the current situation in the world gives every believer an opportunity to boldly speak out about Christ. I mean if you cannot speak confidently about being a child of God now that everyone clearly has nowhere else to turn to in this pandemic, when else will you? One of the most beautiful and bold statements made by Apostle Paul according to the scriptures goes “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ”. Considering Apostle Paul’s initial background and how his focus was to destroy anyone associated with Christ, I think its quiet impressive that after having an encounter with God, He can confidently say he is not ashamed of his faith in Christ.
Have you ever paused for a minute to think where you stand as a Christian? Is your Christianity confined to your immediate environment and when you are out of your comfort zone you suddenly blend in into the other world? Or are you a legitimate and consistent Christian taking a stand for God wherever you find yourself?
Too many times we find ourselves in places where we are surrounded by unbelievers and suddenly find it difficult to even confirm we are Christians, let alone talk about the gospel of Christ. I know if being asked in a Christian gathering, we can all confidently say we are not ashamed but how does your action, behavior and life show this?
Not being ashamed does not mean attending church service every Sunday and being part of functional group in church, it means being able to boldly speak about Christ everywhere we find ourselves. Sadly, many of us will clearly say we have been in Christ for years but cannot still speak to our friends, neighbors and even close families about the word of God.
Every time there is an opportunity to have a conversation, we cannot still chip in any word of God into that conversation due to the fear of rejection Romans 1:15. How then will these people around us be saved if you never speak about Christ? Do people around you even know that everything you do is through Christ who strengthens you? Apostle Paul confidently spoke and lived as one who is not ashamed of being called an apostle, a preacher, a minister of God. Can you be called an evangelist? 2 Timothy 4:5.
One of the barriers of boldly declaring our faith in Christ is because of the stigma. Once you say I am a child of God, the world begins to place you and have various exceptions from you. This is because your behavior and lifestyle is expected to preach to people without even your voice hence you are caught in the middle where holding back makes you remain neutral and likely makes it easier to blend into the world. The scriptures according to Romans 12:2 however admonishes us not to conform or blend in with the world but to be changed by the renewal of our mind which can only happen when we stand firm in the word, with the word and for the word of God. What the world expects of you and God’s exception are two different things. Christ was not ashamed of being treated like a criminal and He died like a common criminal without shame when He took the pain on the cross for you and I to the saved.
I encourage you to be of good courage! Do not get caught in the schemes of the devil by assuming it’s ok to be distant from the gospel and separate yourself from the church of God.
You are the church of Christ and you cannot be ashamed of His name and say you are a part of Him. Christ tells us the reward for being ashamed of Him and His word in Luke 9:26 so be bold and confident knowing that you loyalty is with Christ and His world not the world.
PRAYERS:
- Father I am grateful for the Gift of Life
- Thank you for dying on the Cross to bring me your salvation
- Help me from today to be bold as a lion, living for you and boldly proclaiming your word all around the world
- Help me to be a true example to everyone around me in words, conversation, love, purity and charity
- Let my life speak about you everywhere I go
- Forgive me all my sins O Lord and let your mercy prevail over judgement
- Thank you Lord for answers to prayers, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
