Today is national Spotlight on Slavery Day. Seems straight forward and simple, right? Human trafficking – sex trafficking, etc. So don’t be surprised to see people of all kinds wearing a red X on the back of their hand. But you know me… I’ve always got to think further and more outside the box than that.
Let’s start here: “…no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” – Philemon 1:16.
We are no longer slaves, but brothers and sisters. How exciting is that!
However, there are things that we can remain chained to. Things that the enemy uses to disrupt our work in Jesus. Let’s just take this one for example.
Glossophobia or speech anxiety is the fear of public speaking. The word glossophobia derives from the Greek γλῶσσα glōssa, meaning tongue, and φόβος phobos, fear or dread.
Interesting – how that incorporates the word tongue? Isn’t one of the gifts of the spirit speaking in tongues? Hmmm… And here we are seeing most of our entire culture enslaved by this anxiety.
And just why is it so important that most of the church has this anxiety disorder? Because of this!
“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” – Colossians 2:8
The enemy has taken most of us captive. We are afraid to share Jesus. We are afraid to walk up to the person the Holy Spirit has instructed us to talk with to even say what He wants us to say! Yikes! How are we to grow God’s kingdom if we are frozen by fear? Folks, the enemy is not that powerful. Jesus has already beaten him. So we come from a place that every single time we move on what the Holy Spirit tells us to do, it’s a win. A place of victory.
Let’s take this one step further:
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. ” – Revelation 12:11.
…faced with death. And we can’t even get up enough faith to just walk up to a person and speak to them. We’re afraid of what they will think. We’re afraid of what we will look like to others with us. We’re afraid we won’t know what to say. The good news about the last one is this:
“But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 20 For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” – Matthew 10:19-20
Get it, He tells us what to say! It’s not even about us, this fear and anxiety!
And how in the world are the angels in heaven supposed to overcome the enemy and throw him out of heaven once and for all if we aren’t sharing our testimony?
So today, on this Spotlight on Slavery Day, I hope you’ll join me in praying for the victims of human trafficking and that God would put an end it once and for all time. That God would free the captives that our enemy has chained up in guilt and shame. And that Christians all over would break free of this anxiety condition that has them enslaved and start to speak boldly the truth in love. And I pray that you will have the courage to boldly face this fear yourself and tell someone today.
Funny how that red X starts to look like the cross dancing…
bride linda kay 