J. D. Greear: 5 Secrets to a Bolder Life

Most of us would probably like to be bolder. We read the biblical stories of David and Goliath, or of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or of the apostles in Acts, and we think, “It’s great that they had such boldness, but how can I get that kind of fearless heart?”

One of the common strategies for boldness in our society is to visualize frightening situations, imagining them without all of the possible negative outcomes. I found this on a website about overcoming fear: “Imagine your fear as something very large: a monster, an animal, whatever. Have your fear say some of the things that go through your head when you start to feel afraid. As your fear is talking, shrink it down into something smaller than you. Then get back at your fear: yell at it; make faces at it; kick it around; put it in a cage. Do whatever it takes to make your fear seem small and less threatening.”

So is that it? Do we just re-cast our fears so that they don’t seem as threatening? This can work for some folks, but it has a limit—because no matter how much we imagine our fears as small and cuddly, there always is a possibility that our fears might come true. So for visualization to be successful, this kind of courage needs to be slightly delusional.

There has to be a better way. And in fact, the believers in Acts 4 show us five secrets to a bolder life.... Keep reading

Illustration: courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license