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For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7, LSB

The more we are set free in God and His love for us, the greater things that He will work through us. It’s all about Him and what He can do. Be bold in Him. Luther is quoted as saying, “Sin boldly!” He didn’t mean this to say we should willfully sin, but what he was speaking to was being bold for the Gospel. In His time, there was great timidity in the faith because people were often more afraid of accidentally sinning instead of boldly proclaiming the Gospel. If we err, which we will, God will forgive. In our proclamation, it is important that we are bold and unafraid. People may not always like what God’s Word has to say because when preached in its fullness and purity things will be revealed that we would rather keep hidden. This is how the God’s Law is utilized in His Word, to strip us bare and reveal those things we would rather keep covered so God’s Gospel may rightfully wash, renew, and clothe us in our Lord’s covering. The preacher should not seek to put himself above anyone else, but to bring hearts closer to our Lord that the power of His healing may renew the hearer and bring him to the knowledge of our Lord’s love. Our Lord also gives us restraint so as not to allow us to go in directions He is not leading so we may know His peace.

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.