Find Your Courage in God
The world wants to see the righteous fall, and sometimes to save our flesh, we conform to its patterns. However, by doing this, we risk the salvation of our spirits. Life is a constant battle between Option A and Option B. One of these options will make our time in this world more comfortable, while the other will make us lose our friends, be alienated, and be branded as judgmental. However, these are, most of the time, the choices that please the Lord. And to make the right choice, we have to be courageous.
How does courage begin? Let’s start by understanding what courage means. The Oxford dictionary defines courage as “strength in the face of pain or grief.” Therefore, to spur courage, we have to go through certain circumstances that will allow us to rise above ourselves and our emotions. But as Christians, where should we draw our courage from? Is it from past experiences? Is it from people who earnestly support us? Or from the pain and grief we overcame?
We can all agree that these are things that can keep us going. However, these sources of courage will only work when we are dealing with battles in the physical realm. As Christians, our battles are not of the flesh, but of the spirit. We must find our courage from the Source Himself. Genuine courage is acquired when we choose God.
When we choose God, we become Esthers, Davids, Daniels, Shadrachs, Meshachs, Abednegos, and all the other individuals in the Bible who courageously stood firm in their belief in God and won their battles. When our courage is from our confidence in the power of God, we can slay the giants that hinder us from our breakthrough. We can silence the roar of the enemy, and we can come out of any dire situation unscathed. In a world where being politically correct is more important than being morally right, we must hold on to the courage we have found when we chose to follow Christ. Let the world hate you because you stood up for God. After all, we are not of this world, but of His kingdom.
John 15:18-27 (KJV)
18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also
21But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause.
26But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
