Fearless Faithfulness
Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu // Devotional #75
In the church I grew up in, we’d invite our overseas missionaries to come in once a year for Great Commission Week. It was a week to hear reports from the field, interact with the missionaries our church financially supported, and be reminded that there were people who didn’t live in suburban Dallas and needed the Good News of Jesus Christ.
I remember hearing stories of harrowing courage for the sake of Christ, of missionaries braving the Amazon wilderness to reach the unreached, and of the work they did among the least of these, among those I couldn’t then imagine living among.
If you’d given me a description of what these people did and then asked me to sketch what I thought they’d look like, I don’t think I would’ve ever gotten it right. They were almost always an unassuming, average American couple; someone you likely walked past without taking much notice. They looked like someone’s relatives you’d meet at a backyard get-together, not people who lived on the cutting edge of adventure.
And yet, here were people named Becky and Steve who raised their family in a hut in the South American rainforest, amid the wilderness and without many of the creature comforts I probably couldn’t do without. They had taken the call to go and make disciples to the ends of the earth seriously and literally.
And that’s just it: These ordinary-looking missionaries weren’t trying to be radical. They weren’t trying to live in a way that would shame American Christians. They simply wanted to be faithful. They knew God had called them to a particular people in a particular place to preach the Gospel, so they went.
Having such tangible examples of faithfulness did two things for me. First, it made the cost of discipleship real as I saw people leave the safety and security of life on the Homefront for unknown and sometimes dangerous circumstances.
But second, it inadvertently created a hierarchy of followers of Jesus in my mind. There was the varsity team, who could boldly go anywhere for the cause of Christ, and then there were people like me, the JV, who sometimes felt uncomfortable praying out loud in church with other believers. It felt like there was a clear distinction between the life I led and the life they led, and I wasn’t sure I would or could ever make the cut.
Yet, at the root of that distinction was a fear I couldn’t identify then, but that I now see many of us share when we consider God’s call to go make disciples. It’s a fear that not only tells us we could never do what varsity disciples do but also that the cost would be too great for us. It’s a fear that wants to lull us into believing that faithfulness isn’t enough for God to accomplish what He wants to do in us and through us.
But read what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6-7 as Timothy considers what life might look like after Paul finishes his race:
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (ESV)
Paul writes this final letter to Timothy from a Roman prison, likely counting down the days to his execution. Timothy, whom Paul had raised and developed, would now be fully on his own to face the same persecution, division, and hardship Paul had endured. He knew Timothy would be tempted to let fear keep him from faithfulness. So, in light of this, Paul exhorts Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God he’d received, not letting fear threaten to extinguish the very things God had called him to.
At this point in Paul’s ministry, the early church was disorganized, mired in disunity and disruption, and felt tenuous at best. It didn’t look like a movement that would turn the Roman Empire upside down. If you were Timothy, you might be tempted to look at the problems coming your way and think, "If Paul struggled to keep it together, what hope do I have?” You might look at the mounting pressure and opposition from within and without and conclude it might be better to walk away altogether.
But Paul’s encouragement isn’t that Timothy can power his way through to success, but that God, through Timothy, can do what Timothy could never do on his own. Fear would convince Timothy he couldn’t. But obedience requires nothing more than our willingness.
We don’t fan into flame the gift of God in us by amping ourselves up with emotional intensity to charge the enemy’s lines, but instead by a fearless obedience that confidently entrusts ourselves to God’s good work for us and in us, knowing that He who calls us is faithful.
Paul outlines the source of his confidence and trust when he writes to Timothy in verses 12b-14:
12…But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. 13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. (ESV)
How can Timothy follow in fearless faithfulness to God’s purposes for him? How can he fan into flame the gift of God that can withstand fear’s attempts to douse Timothy’s faith? He can live convinced that Jesus will keep His word and accomplish all that He sets out to do. He can live by faith, trusting in God’s faithfulness to him and for him.
Consider for a moment that God has called you to participate in His global work of reconciling all things to Himself. He’s given you a part to play and entrusted you with the unique circumstances, relationships, and precariousness of your life so that you might bear faithful witness to the Gospel.
That call is for today, not for when you finally get your act together and live righteously enough to make the cut. There’s no varsity in the Kingdom of God. There’s only faithfulness.
Even now, fear wants to tell you all the reasons you couldn’t or can’t follow Jesus in faithfulness. It wants to convince you, like it tried to convince me, that there is a certain class of people God can use, a class neither you nor I belong to. Fear wants nothing more than to let the flame of faith stay latent in you so that you might never experience what happens when faith catches fire in your life, pushing back the darkness within and around you with the very light of Christ.
Yet because of the cross of Jesus, we know there’s only one kind of person God uses: sinners in need of grace. He uses the weakest, the vilest, the poor, the JV, the fearful, and the needy as trophies of His grace to show the world that only Jesus can do for us what we could never do for ourselves.
Live convinced, fanning into flame the faith God’s given you to share, knowing that the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
Take time to consider these questions:
When Paul writes to Timothy to encourage him to remain faithful, whose pattern does he ultimately call Timothy to follow in verse 13?
How does living surrendered to the power, love, and self-control available to us in Christ guard the flame of our faith? What does surrender have to do with living faithfully?
Where have you let fear keep you from faithfulness?
As you end your time, ask God for a heart willing to surrender to Him in simple obedience. Ask Him to show you where fear has kept you from faithfulness and how you’ve discounted His ability to use you for His Kingdom. Praise Him that He uses sinners like us to accomplish His purpose of redeeming all things.
