Will we be bolder for Jesus this year?

Bolder. Will we be bolder for Jesus this year? I love the er… Bolder. We can always be bolder. No matter where we are today. Bolder tomorrow. I am feeling the convictions of God with the Holy Spirit speaking to me. Bolder, man. Be bolder! How about you?

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24

I almost didn’t go to church last Sunday. It was my last day off before returning to work in the new year. I thought I would finish cleaning the garage instead. Unfortunately, I needed to speak with a person from church and so I conceded that I would go. No big deal. I’d hit the early service at 9 and could be home by 1030 if I didn’t stand around.

Off we went for 9am. Our pastor asked us about resolutions and then shared about the people who started our church 21 years ago last Sunday. They resolved to impact our community. He said that in the first year of our church we had 64 members. Only 18 of those 64 are still at our church 21 years later. Then he read the names. Lucy and I were two of the names. We had come to SouthRidge that first Spring. 21 years of SouthRidge experiences and blessings and challenges swept over me in a single moment.

I love my church. I belong here.

He went on to launch our first sermon series of the year: Bolder. Will we be bolder for Jesus this year? I love the er… Bolder. We can always be bolder. No matter where we are today. Bolder tomorrow.

Every area of the church, from Sunday morning to youth to the kids to our community groups will all be studying how to be bolder over the next month. I had a thought in my head from earlier in the weekend about what to do on our free night each week. We could serve at a church ministry we know about or attend a community group we’ve been invited to or stay home.

I don’t want to attend a community group. I’m good. I’m a bit of a hermit. Staying at home sounds good. Until Pastor Brent mentioned the Bolder series study. There it was again. The thought. Community group. Ugh…

I thought, maybe we should go for the four weeks of the study… After service I mentioned it to my friend Lyndene, whom I was asking to step up to be involved in a church committee. She was in. Yes! Later she texted me saying she had been asking God to stretch her. She didn’t realize this would be it. She was nervous, yet she said yes. Bolder.

I went to work the next day. At our prayer time (we meet Mondays for a short devotional and we pray for each other and our organization), I shared that I was thinking about going to a community group for this sermon series (I had thought about it again that morning) and mentioned that I didn’t really want to go to a community group. My friend Sandra said she would pray for me.

When we started praying, Sandra prayed that I would obey God in attending the group. Obey God. Really?!? This was getting out of control. I was just thinking about this. What does this have to do with obeying God? Ahhh… The penny dropped.

These weren’t my thoughts to have or not have our own or not own. These weren’t random ideas popping into my head. Sandra was right. These were convictions of God. The Holy Spirit was speaking to me. Bolder, man. Be bolder!

Pastor Brent challenged us with Psalm 139:23-24 on Sunday. Test me. Try me. Know my anxious thoughts. Being bolder will likely make us feel anxious. Or uncomfortable. It’s natural. Lyndene felt it. I feel it. And the wrong thing is to fall into the trap of believing that answering the bolder call to action is discretionary. If God is really leading us in the everlasting way, we are to be led. By him. And those convictions are to be obeyed. Thanks Sandra. Thanks Lord.

I know when God speaks to me because he often asks me to do things which I normally would not do which line up with his teaching in the Bible. When I desire to do something which is not a standard desire of mine, it’s usually God. And once I realize it, I find it easier to commit.

All my wavering about my thoughts are gone. I’m going to community group next week. It’s not even an option. It’s a matter of obedience to the conviction God has laid on my heart. And further to my thoughts yesterday about trusting God, I am not anxious about it. I fully trust God that I am supposed to be there.

Where are you supposed to be? What conviction are you under? Guess what? The garage still got cleaned up that day. And I was reorganized in the process…