I was feeling comfortable in my spiritual life. I like my church. I read my Bible—not as often as I should, but who does? I pray—again, probably not enough. My kids sing cute Jesus songs. That must be a reflection on me, right? A few times people tease me about going to church, but it doesn’t really qualify as persecution. So all in all, I’m not doing too badly.
Then one morning, when my husband and I were doing our Bible study, we read 2 Timothy 1:7,8. “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord.”

Uh-oh. Those words made me think. Sure I was comfortable, but was it because I was timid? It’s so easy for us to settle into a spiritual comfort zone. But do we need to become uncomfortable and set aside our spirit of timidity with the power of God’s forgiveness and love?

This May, God’s grace prompted me to make a Pentecost resolution. It’s time I live more by the spirit of power and resist the timidity to testify. Why May? Because we celebrate again that very first Pentecost. It’s time I resolve again to tell everyone I can about the Savior. And I’m hoping you’ll join me, because there’s more work than I can possibly do on my own.

To win as many as possible

Today, 67 percent of the world does not know that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life. We have no idea how much time we have left, so we need to speak to as many people as we possibly can, as quickly as we possibly can.

Just as Peter did on Pentecost (Acts 2).

Peter, whose spirit of timidity led him to deny Jesus to a young girl, used the spirit of power to speak to thousands from Asia, Africa, and Europe. He didn’t care about race or nationality; he saw them all as sheep who didn’t know their Shepherd. Through Peter simply speaking God’s words, about 3,000 believed that day.