| "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." Mark 8:38
I go to Bible school and it's super easy to be more open with my walk with God, because the majority of students who attend that college are Christians. I find it easier to also be open with my beliefs in public as well. However, and this is a big however, at times, I find myself a bit embarrassed. For example, I started work a couple of weeks ago. I remember a few days ago, I was walking down the hall and I started singing a worship song. But, I stopped immediately because I remembered where I was and thought to myself, "I can't do this. I'm not at Bible school anymore." And the Holy Spirit whispered to me, "Why do you have to stop?" Even though I really wanted to sing, my flesh stopped me because I was embarrassed and was worried who would look at me weird, and who would judge me. Silly, right? I love God, and I love everything about Him, so why am I embarrassed? I don't necessarily believe I'm ashamed of Him, because I openly talk about Him with people who aren't Christians, and I'm not ashamed to tell them the gospel. I love telling others how much He loves them and whatnot. I'm not ashamed of Him. At all. But...I worry what others think of me. The things I do in my walk with God (I worship HIm, I talk to Him, etc.), I'm embarrassed to show it to others. I'm embarrassed to do worship songs in front of people, even though I do it all the time in my own home.
So, God wanted to teach me a lesson. I was taking a walk a couple of days ago, and I was listening to Jesus Culture on an ipod. One of the songs came on and I started to worship aloud, but then stopped for the same reason I stopped at my work. I was worried about people hearing me and looking at me weird.
"Katie," God beckoned, "I want you to worship Me. Out loud. With no worries, no cares. Worship ME. Don't care what others will say. Sing out loud until you get home."
"Whaaaat?" I asked, frantically. "You want me to sing OUT LOUD? You have GOT to be joking. God, I can't do this."
"Yes, you can. You know what My word tells you, if you are ashamed of Me, so will I be ashamed of you. Stop being embarrassed. You care too much what others think of you. Care what I think about you. Sing out loud, worship Me. And don't be ashamed."
I knew I had to do it. So, I walked a mile, singing out loud. It was hard. I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't. People might have heard me. I saw at least one person when I was walking, and I still sang. Even though I was embarrassed what they thought of me. But....as I got my focus on God, I noticed that my fear left. But...when I got my focus off of God and onto the fears and the worries of what people thought of me, my fears increased. I needed to put my focus all on God when I worshiped Him, and that's how it should be. Your focus should be on God, the ONE that you're worshiping, not on others!
Do you find yourself embarrassed at times to show others your full walk with God? Sure, you can tell them about Him, and talk how good He is. But is your life showing others how much you love Him? Or do you hold back, like I do? You WANT to worship, but you can't because you're in a public place. You WANT to tell that random lady in the grocery store about God, but you choose not to because she might look at you weird. Who cares? Seriously. Who cares? I pray that we are free from this approval of man. Won't it be a great day once you stop caring what others think? Let God give you the strength to be strong in your faith, in front of Christians as well as nonchristians. Be an authentic Christian in all areas of your life. <3
oh, and i'm bored. so here's a picture before i went canoeing :P
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