When you hear the word “courage”, what comes to your
mind? Perhaps soldiers in the thick of battle. Or maybe a knight fighting
dragons like we read in fairytales.
One things is common in all cases: courage
requires doing what seems right even when you don't feel like it.
I find this is quite similar to us Christians.
We will need courage to be all what God wants us to be and do what He requires.
It surely requires courage to be the only one who chooses not to be corrupt in
an office where it is seen as normal.
It takes courage to be patient with annoying
people who are ungrateful.
It takes courage to confront a bad situation
It takes courage to be the voice of the Voiceless
It takes courage to keep doing good even when no one appreciates it
It requires courage to be submissive to your
husband even when he doesn’t love you like you would like.
It takes courage to love your wife like Christ
loves the church, especially when she doesn’t respect you the way you want her
to.
Yes, it sure takes courage to do the right things especially when you
don’t feel like it.
But guess what, we have courage inside of us.
You don’t have to wait to feel courageous, because you never will. Courage only
comes alive when you choose to do the right thing even though you feel fear,
worry, anxiety, etc.
It’s natural to feel afraid when you face a
scary situation, or to want revenge when you have been hurt. It’s part of our
nature as imperfect humans. But when we receive salvation through Jesus, the
Bible calls us “new creatures” we receive power not to be slaves to our human
desires and gratify our old nature, but to be slaves of righteousness, doing
the good deeds God asks us to do.
But just because you are a new creature by
accepting Jesus Christ as Lord does not translate to automatic perfection. You
will always feel the natural urge to revenge, or to compromise, or to lie, or want validation from people, etc. But
because you are a Christian, you can choose to do the right thing even though
you don’t feel like it. And that takes courage.
Courage like love and other virtues is not a
feeling, but a conscious decision to do something good. The Bible admonishes us
in Colossians 3:12 to “clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” Other
translations read “put on…” You and I know it takes an effort to put on
clothes. They don’t just jump onto our bodies. We go through our wardrobe,
looking for what to wear, probably iron it, and then put them on.
Courage is the same, just as other virtues. The
good news is we have courage inside of us when we receive Christ as our Lord.
The Holy Spirit in us enables us to be courageous. In 2 Timothy 1:7 we are told “For God has not given us a
spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” And the
Lord encourages us many times to “Fear not…I am with you”
So as Christians we can choose to do the right
thing today, even when we don’t feel like it. Instead of timidly hiding our light today, let us make the effort to be the light where ever we are. And yes ,we can do this because we have the spirit of
courage and boldness living on the inside of us.
Halleluyah!
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Image1 courtesy: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/mounted-knight-dragon-29096130.jpg
Image2 courtesy:http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/courage-vs-fear-bowling-ball-strike-pins-bravery-marked-strikes-word-to-symbolize-courageous-action-to-overcome-31478775.jpg
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