I started this blog over 21 months ago on September 25, 2009. Yesterday I posted my 500th blog post. In 2011 I’ve posted something every day, and some days I posted twice, even when I was on vacation or very busy. Including my reply comments, there are 2,800 comments posted on my blog. There have been over 26,000 page views since my blog was launched. In the beginning, I thought I was doing good with about 100 to 140 page views per month. In the past 4 months, I’ve had over 2,000 page views per month.
All of these achievements and milestones could cause a blogger to get a big head. But I know that the growth of my blog and my ability to post so faithfully is attributable to the Lord Jesus. The more I sought to glorify Him in each blog post and the more I sought His wisdom and direction in what to write, the easier it became to post daily and my readership grew.
In church yesterday we had a guest speaker who talked about being bold for Jesus Christ. That is what each and every Christian is called to do – to boldly proclaim the Good News of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. He challenged our church corporately and each of us in the congregation individually to pray for boldness. He told a story about a writing professor he once had who had criticized the class because their writing was timid when it needed to be bold.
I realized it was not a coincidence that my Saturday post quoted the very verse our speaker quoted: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV). I also realized it was not a coincidence that he used a writing illustration in his sermon. His words echo in my mind: “Your writing is timid when it needs to be bold.”
Now, if you were to read much of my blog, I doubt that timid is the word that would come to mind. But I know that there is a measure of timidity in what I write. There is a measure of fear that stops me from boldly writing all that God has taught me and how He has brought those lessons home. I could be much bolder for Christ and share what He has done in my life with more detail, in ways that would speak to others who are lost and struggling as I once was.
My writing is sometimes timid when it needs to be bold, but I am praying that He will change that. I am praying for boldness like Peter and John had as illustrated in Acts 4 when they were threatened by the chief priests not to preach the Good News.
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.
“Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”
Acts 4:24-29 (NIV).
As I wrote this post, a perfect song came on my iPod to go with this post, so that it fits into my Music Monday theme: Consuming Fire by Third Day.
I love how this song is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to come and cause the fire of boldness to burn bright in the heart of the believer. This is my prayer – that the consuming fire of the Holy Spirit would burn away all fear and timidity, and cause boldness for Christ to reign in my life and my next 500 posts.