Boldness: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Ephesians 6:19-20

“Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”

As we know, one of the key tasks of any human ambassador is to give a message. We often think of the messages as peace-bearers and treaty agreements. But sometimes the messages are words of warning as well.  Sometimes given in silence, and sometimes in words. Sometimes for good, and sometimes for power.

One silent common thread in crime dramas is when henchmen are told to “deliver a message” and the recipient is badly beaten.  Man’s solution.

And an opposite message of love is given any time a parent embraces a sobbing child in silence. God’s offer.

Jesus does not sugarcoat His words to His disciples and to His listeners, both of whom often do not understand or take affront. Yet He speaks the truth in love regardless of the consequences to Him personally, or opinions of others. He speaks them in mercy: words and actions towards life and healing and restoration. As a gift of life.

“I must speak,” Paul says, already knowing well the physical consequences of prisons and whippings. We already know the possible verbal consequences of ridicule and condemnation. And yet, without messages of truth, we cannot share hope.

Lord, please forgive us our timidity, and give us words in Your Spirit to share Your messages boldly in silence and in speech.

Psalm of Worship: Isaiah 55:13

“Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

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