By Robin Stanley

Are you ready to respond as Peter did to the needs around you? Don’t think you can? feeling afraid? leaving that to someone else? Been there. 

Gather for Worship & Prayer

From the time we arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, our team encountered the effects of deep cultural differences and the strongholds of spiritual battle. Dissension threatened our unity. Fear threatened our effectiveness. I, for one, wanted no responsibility to speak in this atmosphere and tried to relinquish my 40 minutes to someone more seasoned. But when I took my concerns to the team, we worshipped together and engaged in bold conversations with the Lord. 

I surrendered.

At the end of her opening prayer, the local matriarch asked the Lord to heal the singles by giving them husbands and the barren by giving them children. I went limp. I am single, and I am barren. 

A friend took my trembling hands and whispered with me a last-minute repeat of our earlier prayers: “Give us your boldness, Lord, for such a time as this. Use us to set captives free. Cause the enemy to stand down from among us, so that these women, whether married or single, will stand broken before you and whole in you.”

Respond in the Lord’s Boldness

I stepped to the podium ready to respond, but nothing projected! The microphone was dead. I wanted to run. Instead, I began to sing. In the seconds it took to begin “I Love You, Lord,” someone replaced my battery pack. Suddenly my intimate worship exploded into the room. And the Spirit of the Lord filled me with boldness and compassion and words—words of exhortation and healing and truth. 

At the end of the day, Nigerian women responded to the Lord’s invitation from every corner of the room, ready to receive healing, strengthened for community and empowered to ask for boldness in their faith. 

What might happen if you dared to ask the Lord for such boldness? Forget fear. Forget what you can’t do. Never mind that someone else might be better. Watch what God will do. He’ll reposition your fear and empower you for his purpose. And those with ears to hear will be changed. 

Robin Stanley is a voice for the exploited and a life coach who invites people into the presence of God. She is also a writer, speaker, publishing consultant, and aunt based in Lexington, South Carolina.