What are you afraid of?
I’m afraid of lots of things. Heights, spiders, the dark, static electricity, failure, awkward silences.
As a Christian, one of the big fears that we seem to have in common, is the fear of standing out. A lot of who we are and what we do makes us really different to people who are not Christians, so the temptation we face is to shrink back; to minimise the differences so that we don’t stand out – but so that we blend in.
Thinking of shrinking?
There’s a Superhero called The Atom. Look him up on YouTube, he’s pretty funny. His special power is shrinking … he can shrink to such a small size, that he’s able to go around unnoticed by his foes.
And you know, I think us Christians face the temptation to do the same – not shrink to atomic size, but to minimise our faith in Jesus, to effectively shrink back, so that we go around unnoticed. It just seems easier that way – no hard conversations about Jesus/faith/religion and other controversial things.
You can have confidence
Hebrews 10:19-39 was written to the Christians in Rome, to urge them not to shrink back. To be confident. The chapter talks about confidence in three areas:
1. Confidence in your relationship with God – because of what Jesus has done for us, we can (and should) approach God confidently. Approach him in prayer. Approach him in his word. And make time for that! Someone once said that if you’re too busy to pray, then you’re too busy.
2. Confidence in your relationships with other Christians – make it a commitment to meet with your brothers and sisters in Christ, even when life is getting really busy and hard. 6-7 hours a week for Church, youth Group and Bible Study is not a huge ask, but they all go such a long way to helping you stand firm in your faith. Go to church confidently, to be an encourager!
3. Confidence about who you are amongst your non-Christian mates – don’t shrink back like the Atom. Stand up for your faith at school. Write about your faith on facebook. Invite mates to youth group even if they laugh at you. Because Jesus doesn’t want facebook fans, he wants committed followers. He doesn’t want people to click the ‘become a fan’ button, he wants us to deny ourselves, take up our cross – be willing to get hurt for him, and follow him.
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while,
“He who is coming will come and will not delay.
But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” (Hebrews 10:19-39)