You Can Do Hard Thingsናሙና

Here I Stand”

The film Amazing Grace tells the inspiring story of William Wilberforce’s long fight to end the slave trade in the British Empire, but our first glimpse of the man is not of him standing in the halls of Parliament. Instead, director Michael Apted introduces Wilberforce as a man willing to stop his carriage in the pouring rain in order to stop some men from beating their weary horse. “If you let it rest for a bit, it should get up on its own,” Wilberforce tells them. Apted’s point is clear. This man stands up for the oppressed wherever he finds them—not just in the House of Lords and not just when the world is watching.

It wasn’t Martin Luther’s first stand when he nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. He had learned to trust God with his life long before he was summoned before the Holy Roman Emperor and given the choice to either recant or be branded a heretic. There, before the most powerful men of his day, he said, “Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God.”

The God Luther prayed to had been faithful many times before. Whether Luther would lose his life or keep it, he knew that his God would be faithful again.

Ultimately, God is the One who gives us the strength to stand in any situation. But much of that strength is made available through the opportunities He gives us on a daily basis to practice trusting Him enough to obey Him—even when it costs us something. Standing up for God in big, sometimes public, sometimes dangerous situations is made possible because we have stood up for God before. Every time we do the right thing in God’s name, we flex and build our muscles.

Is there a stand you know you should be taking right now? If a challenge comes to mind, don’t ignore it. The hard thing you’re contemplating may be the biggest, most difficult, and most rewarding hard thing you’ve ever done. Don’t miss this good thing God is inviting you to do, and don’t tell yourself it doesn’t matter. Doing what is right always matters—and it matters now.

How do you feel about standing up for God in a difficult situation? What is God inviting you to stand up for today?