If You're Brave Enough

January 14, 2026

From Jackie Payne

I’m reading through the book of Ephesians right now, and what has me pondering is how hard it must have been to accept that Jesus took down the wall between Jew and Gentile. For hundreds of years, the Jewish people had been told they were the special ones, they were the apple of God’s eye. Jesus’ death and resurrection gave salvation for ALL. How hard must that have been to swallow that your identity wasn’t what was going to save you after all…and you had to share salvation with people that you have been told to avoid for your whole existence? Obviously, being Hebrew wasn’t what was ever going to save anyone, but the culture was so deeply engrained in their psyche, that I can only imagine how difficult that was to change. So difficult that only the Holy Spirit could have transformed that perception and understanding.

On the flip side, how must the Gentiles have felt, especially those who had had interactions with the Hebrew people and knew they couldn’t be a part of their lives and weren’t looked upon too fondly because they were the “others”, the unchosen ones? Can you imagine the shock of hearing that they were indeed considered worthy of The God of the Universe’s love?

The Holy Spirit is so cool in that it can completely transform our thoughts, our fears, our misguided ideas and our deep-seeded views of our identity. It can turn someone like Saul into someone like Paul.

What do you need to let the Holy Spirit shift in you today? What anger are you holding onto? What fear are you perpetuating? What wrong identity are you grasping? What ideas are you believing that you need to let be changed?

If the Holy Spirit can change the deep, deep ideas of culture and identity with the Jews and Gentiles, it can do some serious business in you…if you’ll let it, if you’re brave enough.