Shyness is I-ness

There is not much room for shyness in the Lord’s work. Shyness is not humility. Shyness is thinking about yourself. Shyness is just an “I” before “sh”. The shy person is so busy thinking about himself, that he lives in a self-effacing state of self-consciousness. Shyness has nothing to do with humility. It’s overcautiousness aimed at accomplishing little for the sake of not being noticed. It’s a form of fear.

When you’re Christ-conscious, your not self-conscious. Check out this verse in the book of acts. It says “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus”. (Acts 4:13)

That is so AWESOME to me.–Notice that they were uneducated, untrained, just plain-vanilla folks, but they had boldness… And people immediately associated that boldness to Jesus. 

All through the gospels it talks about how Jesus spoke with authority. He proclaimed the truth with boldness. Can you just visualize Jesus preaching? WOW… When you know you’ve got the true values, you can be bold about it. The Bible says that the righteous is as bold as a lion. Meaning that when you’re right, you’re not afraid to stand up and stand out. 

Truth has its own power, it doesn’t need to be propped up. Lies need propping up with other lies. But not the truth. When you stand up for the truth, it stands on its own. 

Boldness has a lot to do with dying to yourself. Look how bold Paul was… But he also said that he died daily. In fact he said “I am crucified with Christ, (I’m dead), nonetheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. (Gal.2:20) 

Timidity and over-cautiousness accomplishes little in God’s kingdom. Silence is golden except when it comes to witnessing – – then it’s just plain yellow. True Faith requires bravery. 

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Don’t worry about what people think about you, only concern yourself about what Christ thinks about you. Mark 8:38 says “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels”. So we must count the cost.

So dare to be BOLD. Dare to think, act, live and teach differently from the vast robotic, conventional, conformist, “silent majority” supposedly “normals”. Paul said, “and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak”.(Eph 6:19, 20).

Jesus didn’t stand with the majority. He stood with the truth. He warned His disciples saying”beware of the leaven of the Pharisee and of Herod”; – that is the political correctness of the churches and of the world. They may hate you for daring to challenge their conformity, but God will love you. 

Shyness, bashfulness and timidity are not virtues. It’s really a combination of two things: fear and pride. You are worried about people’s opinions of you. Boldness comes with faith, and faith comes from soaking in God’s Word and from being a DOER of the Word. Remember all that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do NOTHING.

Now let’s claim God’s boldness and witness His victory to the world around us.