Becoming more bold

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. (Philippians 1:12-14)

The bold fearlessness that Paul observed among the brothers and sisters as the consequence of his imprisonment is no less real today. I am convinced from Scripture and experience that stories of faithful trust in God through persecution, hardship and imprisonment are frequently the tool of the Holy Spirit to make us more bold to speak the word without fear.

I could list dozens of contemporary and historical Christians whose faithfulness in the hard places has made me more bold in sharing the good news. I realize now that my parents played an important role in giving me a taste for missionary biographies. Those biographies, in turn, challenged me to more trust and boldness. So now, as I have the privilege of parenting, I want to regularly read to my children the faithfulness of God to those who have trusted Him through extremely trying circumstances, so that they too would be emboldened to trust Him.