Speak Up

Verse of the day: 1 Samuel 3:15, 18, So Samuel lay down until morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. 18 Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him.”

God’s first revelation to Samuel was one that was difficult to speak, especially since it concerned the tragedy that was to befall Eli’s family. As followers of Jesus, we will all come face to face with times when we will have to speak the truth, and it will not be easy. We will struggle with how the other person will feel, and we may hesitate because we know that our stance on certain matters and issues will likely bring us rejection and persecution. There were many times when Jesus was at odds with the religious people of His day because of the words He spoke. There were even times when people turned away from following Him because of what they heard. In John 6, when Jesus spoke, spiritually, of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, many were offended and walked with Him no more (John 6:66). The fact of the matter is that speaking the truth will offend people. 1 Corinthians 1:18 and 23 say, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”, verse 23 “but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness”. Outside of sharing Christ with others, there will be time when we will be challenged because what we believe, the things we stand for, and our perspective on what is wrong or right, in accordance with God’s Word, is considered not only offensive, but close-minded, narrow, and intolerant, by the world at large. There will be times when it is best to be silent, but in those time when we are called to speak up, we must do so without fear, trusting the Lord for the outcome. In saying this, I would like to stress something about how we share truth. There are many Christians who have offended others, not because they shared the truth, but because of their attitude in sharing the truth. There may be times when we have to be firm in our stance, but there is never an excuse for being mean-spirited, arrogant, or down right offensive, in our tone and speech when sharing God’s truth with others. In Ephesians 4:15, the Apostle Paul encourages the members of the church to speak the truth in love. We should be speaking the truth in a manner that encourages growth in the hearer. It means that we are willing to speak the truth to one another, because we love one another. Will it hurt us to hear the truth at times? Yes, it will. Proverbs 27:6 clearly says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” The bottom line is that there will be times, when regardless of how loving we say something, if it is God’s truth, the likelihood is that someone is going to be offended. However, when it comes to God’s truth, we are called to speak up. We have been called to carry a message to the world that will cause many to walk away, push back, and completely reject us. Nonetheless, it is really Jesus that they are rejecting. When we are rebuked, rejected, and persecuted, for sharing truth, remember what Jesus said in John 3:18-21, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” People who live in darkness do not like having their deeds brought into the light, but we are called to be light in this dark world (Matthew 5:14-16).

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).