All tagged courage
This morning let’s contemplate Isaiah 33 and specifically verse 16. In this chapter God's people are under attack and are praying for help, and in our target scripture verse Isaiah is reaffirming God's provision and defense. There is one core truth about being afraid, and it is this… when we remove the cause of our fear we find that our fear goes with it. So, are we trusting the Lord to take away our troubles, and our cares? Do we believe that He can, and will, honor His promises to us?
This morning we contemplate the symbiotic relationship between faith and prayer, and the fact that one cannot exist without the other. They are so tightly bound together that continuous prayer and never failing faith become as one. The persistence of prayer is the result of a strength of faith and vice-versa. Pastor E.M. Bounds states it in this way: "Faith functions in connection with prayer and persistence. Persistence cultivates the belief that prayer will be answered. A person with a persistent spirit will be blessed.” And, scripture leads us to understand the connection between prayer and faith in words such as these…
How much courage do we think we possess? Are we filled with fear and tell ourselves that we can’t do the challenging things in our lives? Does knowing that our God tells us to be strong and have courage help us face the intense situations, and the terrors of the world as we do His will? If we think that we are lacking in courage because we are afraid, we should look deeper into ourselves because courage isn’t the absence of fear… it is obeying God regardless of the fear that is present in us. When God, or angels tell us to fear not they are actually commanding us to stand firm in our faith and belief despite the natural human fear we are feeling.
As Christians we are not meant to hide our belief from the world, but to stand up tall in our faith. When the unbelievers threaten us we should bravely walk among them, and show our unshakable faith in Christ with courage, especially to those who would rather beat and harm us than to admit we serve the Lord of truth, and reflect the light of the world. Our goodness, kindness, and humble nature, reveals itself to be most courageous, when we are standing without hesitation, or fear, before the world.
As Christians we speak of faith, and most of us stand on its shore in awe, as if it were a vast sea, but few of us go out upon it, or see beyond what our human eyes are capable of gathering in. Our belief is held in check by many things, fear is one of them.
What better day to discuss being bold in our love for Jesus than on Valentine’s Day, and what more appropriate way to begin but with a poem...
Love
By Rich Forbes
Hope gives birth to courage,
courage allows us to be bold,
bold is the heart that loves;
Jesus is the hope of the world.
So, are we bold in the way we reveal our love for God, Jesus, and for one another, or are we timid, and let an earthborn fear throw a bushel over our love, and how we show it?
When we are actively engaged in spiritual warfare we are to stand firm against the enemy, the armies of darkness, but do we pray solely for our own deliverance? Certainly we pray for God to protect us, but any soldier knows that if those around him go down on the battlefield, or are not prepared for the battle ahead, then success is unlikely, and many others will fall. So how does this relate to us as Christians? Well, we are to pray for all those around us as we engage the enemy, and before that day, we are to have helped them in their training, and putting on their armor.
Are we afraid to tell others what God has done for us? Do we fear that they might think we are singing our own praises because He has done so many wonderful and amazing things in our lives? Well we couldn’t be more wrong than to remain silent because the Lord deserves our open praise, and worship before all people, and nothing lifts Him higher than to speak of all He has done for us.