Bold Faith in Christ - How to be a courageous Christian

Have you ever wondered what it means to have true boldness in your faith? Join us in this enlightening episode of "Guilt-Free Faith" as we uncover the essence of boldness from an Orthodox Christian perspective. We kick off by exploring the idea that real boldness isn't about being brash or arrogant; rather, it involves taking faith-driven actions and waiting patiently for God's timing. Reflecting on Jesus's ministry, we discuss how He demonstrated self-control and wisdom amidst external pressures and how His example can guide us through our own everyday challenges, whether they're related to health, finances, or relationships.

In our practical segment, we share personal stories and insights on maintaining quiet boldness under pressure. We delve into the reality of fluctuating confidence and how the severity of life's trials can test our ability to stay firm in faith. We also address the often-overwhelming pressure to appear as unwavering believers and highlight the importance of authenticity in expressing our faith and gratitude. This episode brings to light the nuances of genuine boldness and encourages listeners to embrace a more authentic, resilient faith journey. Tune in for an honest, insightful discussion on navigating the complexities of faith under pressure.

Transcript

Finding Boldness in Christian Faith

Speaker 1 0:00

Today we're going to talk about boldness, how to be bold in the Lord, how to find that deeper courage to take hold of all the things that God has promised us. Hi everyone, jimmy James Johnson here another episode of Guilt-Free Faith. Today we're going to talk about boldness in the Lord and how we can use courage to fully take hold of everything that Christ died for. So first we'll have a little of the Orthodox take on this topic, inspired by my mentor, and then we'll get into my controversial commentary after that, and I believe you will come away from this perhaps with some questions answered, perhaps with some different perspectives on this whole issue of Christian courage and boldness and why it's important and what role it plays in our lives, because we are often sidetracked and hijacked by fear and by timidity and doubt, and that really makes it hard to activate our faith. So let's get right into it. When we think of what boldness looks like on someone, we think of a person who is daring, courageous, brave and fearless. Some people think they are bold, but they are merely rude, arrogant and impudent. They would be much better off just being honest and admitting that they're afraid, instead of trying to pretend that they're brave while living a lie. It takes true courage and boldness to walk in faith and wait for God to vindicate you, especially when you're ill-treated or you're believing for something big and perhaps you're receiving some criticism from around you. Genuinely brave people not only have the courage to take action, but the courage to wait on God when they need to.

Speaker 1 2:52

During the three years of Jesus's early ministry, many people thought he was crazy. His own brothers were embarrassed by him and, in an effort to save their reputation, they told him he needed to go somewhere else and do his works. But if he was unwilling to do that, they had another option. They said hey, take action, stop doing your works in secret. They tried to convince him it was time to show himself and his works to everybody, to the world. In other words, they wanted Jesus to impress the people with all of the powers that he had and all of the things that he could do. But he responded to them by saying my time has not come yet, john 7, 6. Has not come yet, john 7.6. Let's be honest, how many of us could show that kind of self-control when we have so much power and so much blessing within us that we could exercise, that we could prove ourselves right and prove others wrong, could prove ourselves right and prove others wrong. We must be wise enough to know that our plans will ultimately fail without God. If our confidence is a fruit of us being first rooted in God, then we have the right kind of confidence which produces true boldness. As Paul said, we are self-confident in his confidence. So let's talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 1 5:01

Here are Jimmy James Johnson's comments and feelings and thoughts, just uncensored. So obviously, every day, life brings manifold challenges to us. Some of them are minor we stub a toe, we run into a traffic jam but some of them are incredibly more hefty in health or the restoration of health, believing for a turnaround in our finances. Perhaps it's a promotion or a raise or a windfall that we're hoping for to get us out of a jam. There are also deep relational problems we have in our relationships with people. We have some chronic relationship problems, severe chronic problems where important people in our lives, we're at odds with them. There's acrimony, there's baggage and an inability to bridge that gap to find some type of peace or resolution. So we have plenty of stuff that we need to be able to believe on. And when you look around the world and even you, examine your own life and recognize all of your failures and disappointments and the many times you called upon God and don't feel like you were heard or you weren't answered in a way that you felt was sufficient or suitable. Or perhaps the timing of what you wanted to change differed from God's. And indeed in the Word it says that God's time is not our time, so we know that God's on a different schedule. Time is not our time, so we know that God's on a different schedule. Because of all of these things wrapped together, it can be very challenging, overwhelming to believe for, to sow seeds into the hope for bigger things or turnarounds or miracles, however large or small.

Speaker 1 8:02

One of the elements of living a big life in God is boldness by other people's criticisms, other people's judgments, what people think we should do or not do, is what we're asking for or what we're praying for or we hope for? Is that quote reasonable? Or should we in fact be believing boldly, believing in something more and something greater in terms of just taking the shackles off God and taking him out of the little box of him only being able to do so much, him only being able to do so much. Certainly, the living God can do much more beyond even our imagination. Oftentimes it's only by examining our record over many years that we begin to understand or see the potential pattern of God's intervention in our lives. What does it feel like to be bold in God? Perhaps it's a sensation, right, of being able to stand resolutely in the midst of pressure and doubt and dismay and disappointment. But one of the challenges is, it often isn't a feeling that we can bottle or somehow capture and embrace tightly.

Speaker 1 9:53

Oftentimes, that type of boldness or that type of courage is something that we have to keep alive in spite of not feeling it. And wow, what a challenge that is when you're all beaten down and whatever. You're facing poverty, you're facing sickness, you're facing I face all these things. So I can tell you with confidence that I am certainly not above being completely devastated by life's events and I wish I could report that during those times I was like solid as rock, like I was just kicked back, cool and relaxed. Hey, god's got it. Pass the crevasse yeah, you know what I mean. Let's just have a good time. No, past the crevasse, you know what I mean. Let's just have a good time. No, many of those times I was really just encased like in a panic and really just paralyzed by all of my imaginations and all of the catastrophes that I could see on spool and my mind's eye. What does boldness look like in those circumstances when you don't feel bold at all?

Speaker 1 11:22

Oftentimes, I find boldness is simply putting one foot in front of the other. It's infrequently this dramatic rollercoaster storyline where something happens to the main character and then they somehow muster up more courage than any of us have and they defeat their enemy or the monster. We can be so captivated by that version of boldness that we really lose touch with the more reasonable, the more attainable but not at all sexy version of boldness, which is simply putting one foot in front of the other every day, not having any clear answer, not knowing where you're going, not knowing in which direction even you should be heading. You're just literally getting up and trying to survive the day and all of us, at various times in our lives, are broken down into that mode just survival. How do I get through today? I can't even consider tomorrow, or a month from now, or a year from now, or what's going to happen if God doesn't come through with an improvement in my health. You know how I'm going to pay a bill, how I'm going to salvage a marriage.

Speaker 1 13:08

There's just so much that's just become so overwhelming that, honestly, when I meet people that profess to have that type of just unshakable confidence in whatever themselves or God, I'm very suspicious of that. Just because, as just the human organism, we know that we have involuntary reactions to different challenges and threats, and I think most of us know that courage is what you do in spite of that fear. It's not what you do in the absence of fear. It takes no courage to act in the absence of fear. It takes no courage to act in the absence of fear.

Speaker 1 13:49

Courage and boldness are required when fear is at its height, when false evidence appearing real, when we're looking around and seeing disaster that doesn't feel secure at all, just practically speaking, because one of the things that I believe many Christians could benefit from is more practical Christian advice. And what do I mean by that? I just mean when you have a real problem and you go to somebody for help, usually you don't want something just lofty and theoretical and hypothetical and theological. That's not what you're looking for. You actually need to do something about this. For you actually need to do something about this. In my walk and the churches I've been have, I just found that's wanting. And that could be just me, it could very well also be you.

Speaker 1 15:02

Why can't we get some instructions, man? They're like yes, the Bible has instructions and I understand the idea of living by the Bible and things, but the Bible doesn't always make clear where the rubber hits the road on something very specific, like literally, what am I supposed to do right now? What do I do about this? Now? Sometimes the missing component is that we're not really supposed to do anything or we really can't do anything, like we're really dependent upon god to bring something to pass, like it's truly outside of our hands. But even so, as human beings, even if we're waiting for that to take place, we still need a way to conduct ourselves. In the meantime, we need a way to not fall to pieces or become self-destructive. And oftentimes that practicality isn't passed on. That instruction book For me.

Speaker 1 16:10

Oftentimes I want somebody to tell me directly what to do. If I'm asking for help in something like that's what I'm asking, you know, I'm hoping that they're going to give me something really solid that I can work with. So, in this matter of boldness. People say how do I act bold? There are some things that often come to mind that are external. Sometimes, if you're a church or you're around believers or whatever, there'll be people that are acting or speaking in boldness. Right, they're claiming things, they're rebuking things, like they're just they're getting fired up. They're just really popping off with all the right quotes and verses and they're all in. And that can be great. That can really pump you up and restore you when your battery's really low, from getting beat down. So I'm all for that. But I think it would be disingenuous to actually go out and teach people like, oh, that's what boldness looks like, that's what weness looks like, that's what we expect from you when you're under some type of trial.

Speaker 1 17:33

Just speaking for myself, I infrequently have that type of boldness. It depends on the severity of what's going on. If it's not too much for me to bear, then yeah, I can be bolder and pronounce more and claim more. But there are times when I'm just like completely wiped out, like I just think it's all over, like any, anything, whatever my life or anything that could be good, or my career, my relationships, and when you're in that state for me, you're not going to see me walking around talking about praise the Lord and thank you, jesus, for everything that's going on. That's not going to be where I'm at and not that I wouldn't like to be, but I would only like to be if it's in some authentic way.

Speaker 1 18:22

I don't want it to be a matter of acting and just as human beings because we care about what other people think and because we care about the way people perceive us we can be pressured in all kinds of ways to put on different types of acts, and one such act is like the unshakable believer. If they're really feeling that and that's authentic, then that's fantastic. I want some of that. But I also know that a lot of times, people that are coming across like that they're just saying what they think you want to hear, or they're saying what the pastor talked about that day and they're just riffing and improvising on that. And what I'd like to do today on Guilt-Free Faith is just offer up an alternative, an alternative that is quiet, an alternative that is modest, that really is not bringing any glory to my name or setting me aside as particularly holy or powerful, or I have God's ear, watch me just speak everything into being offered, which is just the practical quiet of boldness under pressure, which may not look like or feel like anything.