Courage

As Christians God commands us to have courage.  Joshua 1:9 says, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.”  What is courage?  Is it the courage that superheroes have?  Where they do not hesitate to go into battle against those who want to do evil against humanity.  The definition of courage is the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery (www.dictionary.com).

Courage requires us to not be afraid.  Fear is an emotion many of us experience, when we trouble comes our way.  When chaos breaks out in my life, sometimes fear will rise inside of me.  The way I combat fear is to start to recite God’s word to myself.  When I speak his word, it gets my mind off my problems and gets my mind on God.

Sometimes, we will be afraid, but the key is to remember that God is with us.  When we face difficult situations, we should not be afraid.  God says he will be with us through everything we face.  His word says he will never leave us nor forsake us, he will always be by our side (Deuteronomy 31:6).  We need to have the courage to believe that God will hear our cries and pleas and he will come to our aid.

When we look at Joshua and how God helped him and the Israelites.  Joshua had doubts that he was equipped to lead the Israelites.  God encouraged him by letting him know he will be with him wherever he went.  The same promise he gave Joshua is the same promise he gives us today.  When trouble comes, we do not have to worry our God already has a plan in place to defeat our enemies.  He already has a plan in place to solve our problems.

Courage requires us to stand in faith and trust that God can handle all our issues and problems.  Courage requires us to trust him and lean not to our own understanding.  Courage requires us to remember the previous times God delivered us.  If he delivered us before, he can do it again.  He is the same God yesterday, today, tomorrow and forevermore.  Courage requires us to be brave.  Even though, we do not know how God is going to do it, we trust that he will deliver us.  Today be courageous, give your problems to God, get out of the way and praise him for what he is going to do.

LSW