Courage Under God

[newton3005]

What is courage? It is doing something despite your fears and the objections of others. This can also secularly define foolishness, but to be sure, it defines what courage is under God. As 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” On the other hand, Revelation 21:8 says, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” To be cowardly to do the works of God is detestable.

Lord Jesus gave us two commandments: That we love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and we love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It takes courage to do these things despite other’s objections and despite our fear of what others may do. It takes courage to be steadfast in knowing that those who try to stand in our way of abiding by these commandments are the faithless who await their portion in the burning lake. Ephesians 6:10-11 says, “...be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” For anyone who is faithless is doing the work of the devil. And anyone who does the work of the devil is faithless.

We who are faced with obstacles that strive to thwart us from plunging ahead in the name of goodness can take solace that God is with us. Did not God say to Joshua, when he was about to lead the Hebrews into the Promised Land to confront the faithless in Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go?”

In this world full of sin, we are faced with those who neither love God, nor do they love their neighbor. They exact gain from the hard-earned gains of others. They project their inadequacies onto others. They will not hesitate to sacrifice a nation for their own benefit. They will not pay what they owe to others whose efforts they have benefitted from. They will pretend to align themselves to those who love God and their neighbor, but they themselves do neither.

And because of the power some of them yield, there are those who are intrinsically too faithless to stand up to the powerful, and so they have no guts. Because they are faithless, they cannot discern between right and wrong, between what’s good for all the people and what’s good for just some. They are ignorant of the idea that if they do what is good for everyone, the people they are drawn to will benefit also.

Of those who claim to stand for what is good, let them pull up their guts and actually DO what is good, knowing they’ll run into objections and opposition. Because that’s what courage is under God.

Perhaps, in working for just some people and not all within their sphere of authority, they are not expected to be courageous under God; and so they just go along, despite that the way they take will lead them into temptation and ultimately deliver them into the hands of the devil.

It takes courage to love God and our neighbor, and if we really want to do so, God through Lord Jesus will be on our side. As Jesus instructs us in Matthew 10:16-20 to not be afraid in the midst of the den of wolves out there for God is with us, we will ultimate get our just reward in dwelling in the House of the Lord.

 

[joshua 1 9]

It takes courage to do these things

Yes it takes courage but what is courage? If we go back to the Ancient Hebrew Letters perhaps that can help. The first letter is a NAIL. This represents the courage Jesus had to go to Calvary "for the Joy set before Him". The next letter is the Alph, the first letter in the Alphabet. This represents strength, leader, head. As we are to set an example for others. The next letter is water, and this represents the river of life and the Holy Spirit. The River of Life flows from the Throne of God. We first get our feet wet, then we go in up to your knee, finally we are to go all the way in over our head. Next we have the fish hook, this also represents the mighty hunter. This represents catch, desire and need. We need to catch and possess the right desires and needs in our life. To be consecrated, dedicated and sanctified before God. So this is a very quick look at the word picture we see in the Hebrew letters that make up this word. Of course there is a lot more meaning because as they say a picture is worth 1,000 words. We can pray and ask for courage. It is helpful if we understand the work God is doing in our life in response to our prayers. Perhaps where we need courage the most is if we are asked to be a leader and commit ourself to that usually on a weekly basis. There have been times I have been asked to head up various christian programs and I just did not have the courage I needed to do the job.