It's a given: if you want to fulfill God's calling on your life you will face opposition. People may mock you, your friendships could be jeopardized and you might even lose your job. 

How do you live boldly for God in the midst of such unyielding pressure?

According to Jesus, you live boldly for God by turning your eyes to Him and by realizing that He both knows the details of your life and that He values you greatly. 

Audience of One

As Jesus sends out the 12 apostles to preach the message of the kingdom, He exhorts them to get their eyes off of men and to raise their eyes to God: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). 

If you want to live boldly for God you start by knowing that God is the true power broker, not some hot-headed co-worker who threatens you with a lawsuit if you share the gospel at work again. Yes, you may get hit with that lawsuit. But whom would you rather face, a trial lawyer or God Almighty? Man can only do so much, but God has power over all things.

But Does He Know? And Does He Care?

But is God's power comforting enough in itself? As the apostles heard Jesus' words, they might have been thinking, "Easy enough for you to say. But what happens when the synagogue rulers call together a crowd to throw me into jail? Doesn't God realize that I have a family to support? I gave up fishing to follow you, but how are my wife and kids gonna eat when I get thrown in the clink?" 

We sometimes get this crazy notion about God: that He doesn't really know or care about the minor stuff in our lives. We treat Him like some grumpy grandpa skimming the headlines in the Sunday paper: if there's some big event in world news, He'll read past the headline and spend a moment or two reading the article. Other than that we're on our own. If we face a minor trial but it's not the defining moment of our life, we think that God is too busy to be bothered. We insanely think that God only shows up for the "big stuff" in our lives. 

Hogwash. 

Jesus must've known that the disciples were thinking this way because He added, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:29-31). If you have 412,891 hairs on your head right now God knows. We could never figure that out. That just shows that He knows us and our situations better than we do.  

Sometimes we can be going through a fiery trial and "feel" like God is distant. But our fickle feelings don't negate the solid truth: this same God who is powerful enough to do anything knows everything -- and He cares. Because He is perfect in His power, His knowledge and His love, we can live fearlessly in whatever it is that He has called us to do.