Holy Boldness

The fear of the Lord will cause a person to honor the authority in their lives even when that authority does not know whom they are overseeing. To submit to people who do not understand who you are or what you are called to do is another opportunity to trust God. No one can keep you from your destiny except you. God places people in many frustrating circumstances and these are heart tests . Consider the life of David as he was serving King Saul. David’s life is a profound testimony to the process involved in preparing a person for leadership. It is nothing for God to give people great gifts. It is everything for God to find some one who will submit to misunderstanding to cultivate deep internal work of trust and obedience. So Jesus went home with His parents and submitted to them even though they did not know Him as well as He knew Himself. The result of such an arrangement was this: “And Jesus kept growing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” (v.52) Growth is an interesting thing. God is often more interested in internal growth than external growth. Many of God’s people get frustrat ed with restrictions . But this is one of the ways of God. God places us in small places and sometimes in very frustrating circumstances so that one learns to trust Him and believe in Him and to “…judge Him faithful who has promised.” (Hebrews 11:11) Apart from the awkwardness towards His parents, the statement of Jesus while still, a child reveals some profound truths about Him and His development in the fear of the Lord. 1. It is highly significant that at the tender age of 12, Jesus already had a clear handle on His unique identity. In the first recorded dialog of Jesus, He refers to God as His father. In first-century Judaism, no one referred to God as their father until Jesus came on the scene. Though God is compared to a father in Psalm 103, there is not a single instance of any Old Testament character ever relating to God as their personal father. In the whole Bible, Jesus is the first person who dared to call God His father. This is a stunning advance upon the understanding of the nature of God. More on Jesus’ first recorded statement “Did you not know that I must be about the things of my father?”

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