Take courage.
To be sure, it requires a lot of courage to speak up—whether that’s in front of one person or one thousand.
Thankfully, God has provided us with the example of Peter for encouragement.
Early on in his life, Peter was a real coward. He flat out denied Jesus because he was afraid of the repercussions (Matt. 26:74).
In Acts, however, we see Peter preaching boldly to massive crowds. In the end, as I mentioned, he courageously died a martyr’s death.
What made the difference over the course of his life? The Holy Spirit.
The goal of life is not to escape without getting persecuted for your faith.
We live in a culture that is increasingly hostile toward Christianity. We need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
As we obey the Scriptures, repent of sin and walk in humility, we will learn to trust the Spirit. Talking about Jesus may never feel safe and easy, but speak up, and the courage will come by faith.
Open your mouth, talk about Jesus and trust the Holy Spirit to do his work. Then, take your beating and “endure hardship as a good soldier” like Paul told Timothy (2 Tim. 2:3, NKJV).
Jesus never said he’d be handing out medals in the end for good and faithful cowards.
