Speak Up

Are you ever afraid to speak up when you know God has given you a word to encourage with? Of course, all of us at times are fearful. I’m not sure why, but we are.

Paul and Barnabas were told: “Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.” (Acts 13) So they do what they were asked. Later on we read: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.”

Paul and Barnabas were faithful to speak up, even though those they were trying to encourage rejected them. They did, however, learn a valuable lesson. They found the people that were willing to listen to them.

It’s really not our responsibility to make sure those we are talking to follow through, it’s only our responsiblity to be faithful to speak up when God tell us to. How do you know when you are suppose to speak up? All I can say is when you have that feeling in the pit of your gut, it’s time to step out on faith. There are many times when I know I am to speak up and I am so worried about what others may think. But don’t forget, there was never a popular prophet in the Bible, they were speaking truth, and truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow.