The Audacity to Believe

When David had the audacity to request his shot at the giant Goliath his brothers became angry with him for embarrassing them, and Saul ridiculed him for what he thought was a boastful claim grounded in nothing more than youthful pretension. At this point most of us would probably have thrown in the towel like a boxer who realizes he should not have tried to make a comeback, and walked off with the words, “Well...I tried, what more can I do?” trailing behind us like a line of crumbs from a child’s cookie. Fortunately, David did not respond the way many of us would have to the disparaging remarks made regarding his worth as a soldier. Instead of being disheartened by the fact that his older brothers, and the king, thought him a precocious young lad with misplaced confidence - stemming from an ability to protect sheep from their predators - he continued to pursue the opportunity to defend his people and fight against their biggest adversary (pun intended).

How many of us would have done the same thing, knowing that we were putting our lives and futures at risk for some people that really were not interested in our services? How many of us would have been willing to fight through the fog of rejection and discouragement and take hold of the task which we knew God had called us to complete?

Perhaps you have heard the story of Henry Martyn. Martyn was a missionary to India where doctors told him that if he did not leave he would probably die from the heat. So Martyn did leave, and went to Persia, which is actually hotter than India. There Martyn translated the New Testament and the Psalms into the Persian language in only nine months; pretty good considering before he arrived he did not know Persian. After Martyn finished his translation he was told that he was not allowed to hand it out until he received permission from the Shah in Tehran. He then traveled the 600 miles to Tehran were he was told that he could not see the Shah. In desperation he made the 400 mile trek to see the British ambassador whom he found out could do nothing for him. He traveled back to Tehran, at this point beginning to show serious signs of his slowly deteriorating health, and was forced to rest during the extreme heat of the day protected by only a small piece of canvas that shaded him from the torrid sun. When he finally arrived in Tehran he was allowed to see the Shah, and was granted permission to share his translation with the people of Persia. Only ten days later he went home to be with the Lord he had so passionately served throughout his life. One of the final entries in his journal read, “I sat and thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God. In solitude my Companion, my Friend, and Comforter.”

Henry Martyn did not balk at the adversity that the devil put before him. Instead he looked past it to the goal he had of serving his Lord and Savior. Following Paul’s words in Hebrews 12, Martyn had his eyes set on Jesus and was determined to run the race marked out for him. Martyn didn’t wait for someone to tell him where the markers were, he simply went, knowing that as long as he pursued what the Lord put on his heart, he could not go wrong.

Often we choose not to do something the Lord has put on our heart, and unlike David or Henry we choose to excuse our inaction by convincing ourselves that what others are saying about us is true, or that our past failures ultimately determine what we are capable of achieving for the Lord. The truth is that these are words and thoughts being pushed on us by the father of lies, and we must remind ourselves that at the end of the day it is only the person staring back at us in the mirror that convinces us they are true.