It’s time for us to be BOLD Jesus followers.
We need to keep living, keep working and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We are to be BOLD for the sake of our God who equips us. And for what are we equipped? We are equipped that we would bring glory to Him, in our living and our working and our faithfulness to Him. Hebrews 13:20 exhorts us: “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
What’s BOLD about this exhortation:
It claims that peace is from God – and He is always home, never changes and is never out of stock no matter how many people want him. This is quite unlike some other sources we find for peace.
It claims we have access to this peace through Jesus because he defeated death – has anyone else?
It claims this access stands on an eternal and certain promise – not one for our current home only – but our eternal one.
It proclaims the greatness and goodness of God. After all, it is HE who allowed Jesus to be killed and HE who brought Jesus back from the dead. And he did it to have us.
It proclaims we required a blood sacrifice to have peace with our great and good God. Therefore, while we can choose to be good to one another, we can choose to be kind, and we often do - at our core, we are not the kind of good that is the good of God.
It claims He doesn’t abandon us. Jesus, sitting beside Him today, is our Shepherd guiding us.
It proclaims we aren’t in charge. We are the sheep, being guided by the Shepherd.
It claims God equips us with everything good that we may do his will – God funnels His good through us when we rely on the Shepherd.
It claims glory be to Christ, not me or you, which makes sense since it’s Him working through us.
It claims when we clearly acknowledge God’s position and our own, we represent the God of peace to one another, because we are equipped with everything good to do the will of our Father, which is what Jesus did when He freely went to the cross to serve us.
How will we serve one another today? Will we serve from such a BOLD place as this? To serve standing on such truth is to serve with BOLD Leadership, characterized by curiosity, respect, forward-looking expectant vision and rest – for yourself, for others and for your circumstances. It’s also characterized by God-designed sustainable connection, productivity and rest. When you lead from this place, you will lead waves of others to do the same.