It takes courage to work hard, to achieve our goals, and to understand life from an uncomfortable perspective.
But, what actually is courage?
Well, courage means having the ability to do something or act on something that may be scary.
For some, it takes courage to just wake up in the morning and walk out of their room to essentially face life’s obstacles. For others, courage means going out and chasing your dreams. Neither are wrong or right choices.
But, what does the Word say about courage?
“‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.’ Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’” - Deuteronomy 31:6-8
Therefore God calls us to come out of our ‘comfort zones’ and serve intentionally. That’s probably one of the easiest statements to read, but also (ironically) one of the most difficult in application to life.
Our minds cannot possibly comprehend the idea of how stuck of a society we have become. In that, I mean, we have become a society of living comfortably and taking the easy way is seemingly second nature for us.
But, what God is saying to us in this verse is that we must become authentically obedient to His commands -- regardless of how difficult the circumstances are. If you think that the obstacles you will face are more than you can handle, then take a look at the book of Leviticus. It teaches how their Israelites RELENTLESSLY cried out to God and moaned about their problems after God had saved them all from oppressed by Egypt.
Gosh, that was annoying to read for my Old Testament class.
How annoying would that be if the person(s) you created just moaned and moaned, over and over again -- for the same reasons, without doing the one thing you asked of them?
That one little thing called Faith.
There is no faith without courage.
There is no courage without faith.
So, what can we learn from the Israelites? Stop seeking and just trust. God just needs us to trust in Him for our prayers to be answered, and He is the only One who can genuinely take you ANYWHERE and face ANYTHING.
That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.
So, now we know that it takes faith for courage to happen.
*Cough* (so, what the heck does that mean/look like?)
“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” - Romans 1:17
With that being said, as Followers of God, we are called to walk courageously (faithfully) as an act of glorifying our Father.
If that isn’t beautiful, then I don’t know what is.
So remember this, walk humbly with the courage of the Lord and let Him be the director of your paths. Never submit to your emotions, thoughts, or intimidation. Rather, merely submit yourselves to the only Authority and Author of your life, God.
