Persevering in doing good...

For those who have been following along with the Tswana Audio Bible Project you know that we have been experiencing our fair share of resistance and spiritual warfare in undertaking this task of recording the Tswana Bible. 

In my role as field coordinator for the project I largely am a behind the scenes observer. The narrators, proof-listeners, and technicians are the ones who are directly responsible for carrying out the work. My job is to make sure it all runs smoothly and stays on schedule. Mostly this has involved sitting in on all the sessions observing, offering advice where necessary, praying and interceding throughout the day, and managing the schedules of the various narrating teams. Also due to the fact that many of the narrators and listeners don't have cars of their own I have also undertaken to transport many of them daily to and from the recording sessions as there are no taxis that run to the school. 

During the recording sessions though I have had a lot of time to catch up on reading and studies I had put aside during the several months of recruiting team members for the project. One book that I recently finished is "Breaking Intimidation" by John Bevere. It is a book I have read before but felt I wanted a refresh this week. To say the least it has been a timely read for me. I would like to share just a few thoughts from the book. 

I am not ashamed to admit that for much of my life I have dealt with a spirit of fear and timidity and have often allowed fear of man to sidetrack me from my calling in the Lord. Yet I praise the Lord that He has never been content to let me stay in that place of being paralyzed by fear and especially over the past several years has been strongly dealing with this area of weakness in my life. 

In his book, John Bevere, makes the statement that "you will serve whom you fear". If you fear God then what man thinks or does makes little difference to you because your sole concern is pleasing the Lord with your life. Moreover, John makes the point that the main root of fear of man is actually selfishness or self-preservation. In other words because we fear the loss of our life or suffering for doing right we will rather compromise to please men in order to "secure" their favor. Yet this is a shortsighted view of life, it is focused only on the present without regard for eternity. Jesus said it this way "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”(Mark 8:34-35 NKJV) 

You see if we are so focused on this life and preserving our security, comfort, “blessing” here and now we actually will forfeit our lives making ourselves a slave to these things. Yet if we recognize that recognize like Paul that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” we begin to see that we “have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God” and “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” It is a freeing thing to realize that we no longer have to fear death, pain, suffering, or anything else this life has to throw at us as believers. Peter says this “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.”(1 Peter 3:13-14 NIV emph. mine) I can live wholeheartedly for the Lord in all He asks of me because I have this promise that even if I should suffer for doing right I am blessed! Not I will be blessed, but I AM blessed! 

To bring this back to the ABP, this has been a great strengthening revelation for me. I have wrestled with fear and intimidation over this project since the very first day the Lord laid it in my heart. Some has come from without(friends questioning the merits of the project or my abilities to do it complete it, family questioning why me or why here, ministry leaders questioning should I not be focussing my “talents” elsewhere) and some has come from within as I have doubted my own abilities to hear the Lord and wrestled with the challenges of this project.  Throughout I have been faced with many opportunities to simply give up and move on to something else. Yet the more I press into the Lord, the more convinced I am of His calling upon me to see this thing done and it gives me confidence and boldness to carry on no matter what the obstacles. 

I realize that this might seem like a random blog and you may be asking “what’s the point Matt?” My heart is that whoever reads this would be encouraged to live even more freely and wholeheartedly for God. What has He called you to? What things has He asked of you that you have thought “I am not capable.” or “If I do that my whole life may change.” or “What if I fail, what will others think?” God has not given us a spirit of fear, but has freed us from fear! He has freed us from fear of man, from fear of death, from fear of failure! He has called us, but more importantly He has promised in that calling that no matter where it leads us, no matter what we face as a result of the call, He will always be with us. He will never forsake us! Whom or what shall we fear? God is with us!

In closing I want to share one statement from “Breaking Intimidation” that has really encouraged me this week. “What man considers insignificant God uses to perform the impossible.” If you are like me you probably have many times questioned “God why me? Who am I to do this task?” His answer to me and you is not about who we are, rather the more important thing for us to grasp is who He is! I say again “If God is for us, who can be against us!”