Dateline: Acts 4:29-30 "29 And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that Your slaves may speak Your message with complete boldness, 30 while You stretch out Your hand for healing, signs, and wonders to be performed through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus."
Please pray for pastors; for complete boldness.
Pastors need "complete boldness." Yet many today are lacking. I see no need to go into detail because I am certain we all realize this. Instead, I would like to share a few thoughts on "complete boldness."
1) Complete boldness is not accomplished by preaching a message to people who already know and love you… and will probably agree with whatever you say (consider the context of Peter's prayer in Acts 4). Complete boldness requires risk.
2) Complete boldness is not equivalent to bravado/machismo (this is coming from a guy whose marital arts nickname is "The Elbow Crusher"). Pastor Bob Edwards was bold. He was courageous. He showed no fear and did not compromise the truth when he told me about Jesus and what I needed to do in order to live a Christian life (I shudder to think where I would be today had Pastor Bob been more concerned about my comfort than my conversion- Pastor Bob did not fear the "Elbow Crusher." Pastor Bob feared the Lord). Pastor Bob was always bold, never compromising and ever compassionate. Pastors need to be like him because He was like Jesus.
3) Complete boldness is not achieved without rightly doing the task we have been called to do. In John 10:9 Jesus tells us He is the door…. Pastors are called to be doormen not doormats.
I have a sneaky suspicion that the emboldened attacks of the enemy we are experiencing in the world today are evidence that he sees the lack of "complete boldness." Thus, he attacks what he considers to be a weak point. "Complete boldness" was enough for Peter and the early church and it is what we need today- Verse 29 calls for preachers to preach with complete boldness and look at God's role in verse 30, "While You stretch out Your hand for healing, signs, and wonders to be performed through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus."
