Anyone who knows me realizes I love chocolate. I will tell anyone who will listen.  I talk about and share my chocolate anytime I get a chance.  As much as I love chocolate, it won’t change anyone’s life.  My desire is to have the courage to stand up for the thing that will radically change the life of others.

In II Thessalonians 2:15, Paul said, “So, brothers and sisters, stand strong and continue to believe the teachings we gave you in our speaking and in our letter.”

Gideon was probably one of the most fearful yet courageous men in the Bible.  The Midianites were ruling over Israel.  God told him to become a mighty warrior and to stand against them.  Gideon was a reluctant warrior but when he knew that God desire him to fight, he was willing.  Gideon was able to fight against an entire army with only 300 men because he was willing to stand up for God.  In fact, Gideon’s army did not have to fight; they only had to stand with a trumpet and a candle.

God does not always want us to fight with others about our faith.  Sometimes He merely wants us to be firm about what we believe about Him, standing with our trumpet and candle.   At Special Gathering, we try to encourage our members that when we are at work, we should be Christ-like but perhaps not talk about Jesus.

Standing firm is not a cop out.  It is what we need to do at times.  Years ago, when a group of neighbors would get together in the morning for coffee, their language would become pretty fowl.   I wanted to confront them.  My good friend, Wylene told me, “Don’t correct them.  Just don’t use bad language yourself.  They will get the message and stop.”  I knew she was right even though I saw no change in our coffee cloches.

How do we stand firm?  Don‘t join in when others are sinning.  When others are gossiping, we don’t need to join into the conversation.  It’s easy to change the subject.  I was convicted of gossiping by observing the executive director of Special Gathering, Richard Stimson and his wife, Nancy, who would not join when others were talking.  It didn’t take long for me to get the point.  Even though I knew that gossip was harmful because of the untruths that had been spread about me, I seemed to still occasionally slip into its trap.

I learned to smile and be polite but to not join into the fray.  That is often the secret to standing up for the Lord.  Standing firm.  With my neighbors, I seemed to never make any progress in their lives.  For years, I prayed for them daily.  Then the Lord used another neighbor to work miracles in our small community.

However, when I entered the work place, I found myself in a similar situation.  I used the advice Wylene had given me.  In this atmosphere, things changed almost immediately.  Though I was the low person on the totem pole, I found that within six months, there was a completely different atmosphere in the office.  The Lord had touched their hearts.

Standing firm is not a cop-out even though it may not be as hard as speaking boldly about our faith in the Lord.  Yet, sometimes it is exactly what God wants us to do.

Has there been a time that you were able to firmly stand and God blessed your faithfulness?  Perhaps you believe that standing firm is never the right thing to do, what do you think is the correct way to handle uncomfortable situations?