Fearlessly Fearing

During my Beth Moore study, Breaking Free, I was reading about Jotham one of the kings of Israel. Jotham was a man who sought the Lord during his time of reign and he had much success as a king. However his people were not so dedicated to the Lord and they continued to practice their corrupt worship of idols. One of the reasons this was the case was because Jotham didn't destroy "the high places" which were places where they would go to worship the pagan gods.

Something that was interesting that Beth Moore wrote about this situation was, "Jotham sought God faithfully and walked steadfastly before Him, but he refused to demand respect for the One and Only God. Jotham was boss. He could have destroyed the high places, but he obviously feared the people more than he feared God."

Isn't this a sobering thought? When I read this it made me think of my own life. Sometimes I am just plain content with seeking the Lord on my own but then I don't fight for all that He is. I mean Im not a King or Queen or in any situation where I have power and authority over what people do but I can still have influence on the way that people treat the Lord.

I find that far too often my life is characterized by the words of Beth Moore,"[she] obviously feared the people more than [she] feared God." I allow fear sometimes to shut my mouth in situations where I should be defending God. I don't speak about the great things that the Lord does in my life for fear that people will mock me. And I even find myself sitting and simply allowing people to mock the name of Jesus and His followers.

Most of the time I also realize that during these situations I am working in my own strength. It's generally times where I have been out of the Word for a while or slacking off with my time spent with the Lord. I loose sight of all that God is and I begin to see how frightening confrontation is. I begin to see how much I desire approval of other people and not so much approval of God and that begins to cloud my mind and tends to lead me to speak things that I wouldn't normally speak or to not speak anything at all.

At those times that is when I need God the most. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us power in those situations to speak the truths of God. If we continue to look to ourselves in those times and beat ourselves down for not speaking the right thing then we are completely disregarding Jesus. However if we humble ourselves and realize that we are never going to be able to do it in our own strength and ask for God to fill us with His stregnth and His Spirit then we will have power in those situations.