by Marti Fischer

Are we willing to be bold, which is the inevitable result of trust in God — trust in the new covenant — where everything comes from God and nothing comes from us? Boldness. Honesty. Confidence. These are the quiet inner characteristics of those whose strength is in the Lord. But you won’t truly know them until you test them to find out if they are true and if they truly do show up in your life.

Given the book sold over 39 million copies, it’s evident many of us want to be driven by purpose. Similarly, the huge number of in-demand motivational speakers support the fact that many of us are searching for boldness, courage, and confidence. We instinctively know that effective action must issue from a courageous, confident spirit. Tony Robbins, the great influencer of our generation, tells us that his life’s quest has been to restore our dreams of being significant and “to make it real, to get each of us to remember and use the unlimited power that lies sleeping within us all.” With or without Tony, we try in a thousand ways to summon up that confidence from within. True, there is a form of boldness we can find in ourselves, and we can get pumped up in a motivational session, but as you know, it will end in a fading glory.

Come to find out, Tony is not the source of Paul’s boldness. Paul has found the secret of true boldness. His basis is different. “Therefore,” says Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:12, “since we have such a hope, we are very bold.” That is Paul’s triumphant conclusion to his discussion of the two covenants at work in humanity. His boldness is rooted in a sure hope, a conviction that God is ready to work in him.

And guess what? All of us who trust in this hope become noticeably bold, because we are not trusting in ourselves or in some effort we are making on behalf of God but on God himself. We can be supremely confident. And since success does not depend any longer on our dedication, our zeal, our wisdom, our background, our charisma, or training, then you and I can be very bold. It is God who will do it, and He can be depended upon not to fail — though He very well may take some unexpected route to accomplish His ends — He never fails.

When we can trust that God is capable to work in any given situation, He delivers us completely from the fear of failure. At that moment, what else can we be but invincibly bold!

Given all of this is true … and we not only know what the secret sauce is, we have it  — between now and Friday, I want you to step out of your polite, kind and demure characters — not on your own, of course but trusting in this hope we speak of, that God is ready to work in you — and put yourself into a situation you need to be in, but don’t have what it takes in yourself to deliver. Take what you now know and allow the Lord to activate it.  Because where the Spirit is … (you should know the rest by now). And then, tell us about it.

We eagerly await your stories.

Grace and peace,

Marti