Friends, Believers are peace loving. Believers extend grace and forgiveness. Believers are gentle and kind; but, Believers must also be strong and courageous and willing to fight for God and His ways. We are to avoid being petty and contentious, always looking for offenses and the least differences of opinion. There can even be near brawls over different interpretations of the Bible. We are always to look for ways to work through disagreements with gentleness and kindness, but there must also be a place where we draw the line and are willing to stand up for our God, His Word, and His Ways. Many of us feel too timid or lacking in verbal skills or detailed knowledge. Perhaps we need to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians6:10) so that we may be available if necessary to defend the One who gave His life for us. It is far too easy to hide behind lack of skills or fear of others’ opinion, and when we do we miss our opportunity to stand up for what we believe in by using “gentleness and kindness.” I am much better at encouraging you to take this stand than in doing it myself, but I am asking our God to give us all a new fresh and gracious boldness to defend Him and His ways in our world. We can do it. He will help.
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