Courage
When I hear the
word courage my mind immediately goes to people in my life who I’ve seen go
through difficult times and come through the other side better, wiser, and full
of life. I look at people who have faced abuse, cancer, or a myriad of difficulties
that nobody would wish for and ask myself how they were able to get through
that season. I believe that the answer is courage.
One of the most
widely known examples from Scripture on courage is the story of Joshua who
takes over leading the Israelites after Moses dies. In this story, the LORD
passes the baton from Moses to Joshua and as He commissions Joshua with this
new mission, He commands him to be bold and courageous. (Joshua 1:1-18)
The context of
the book of Joshua is that Moses has died and the LORD comes to Joshua and
says, “Hey, by the way, your leader, Moses, is dead and now I’m going to need
you to step up and lead my people – the Israelites – into the land that I’ve
promised them”. At this point, I think it’s important to note that Joshua has
never done this before. He’s been learning how to be a leader under Moses but
now his mentor and leader is dead. I can only imagine the feelings and thoughts
running through Joshua at this point:
“Am I ready for
this?”
“I have no idea
what I’m doing!”
It’s at this
point that the LORD speaks to Joshua something that will hopefully rectify all
of his hesitations, fears, and premonitions.
“No one will be able to stand against you all the
days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never
leave you nor forsake you”
(Joshua 1:5)
It is shortly
after this that Joshua gets commanded, multiple times, to “be strong and
courageous”. Interestingly, the command to either “be bold and courageous” and
“do nor fear” or “do not be afraid” is one of the most repeated commands
throughout Scripture.
There’s a clear
principle that can be drawn from these commands.
Each time that
command is given, God always follows it up with “I will be with you”. In the
Joshua example, the LORD tells Joshua to be bold and courageous four times in
the first chapter alone. Notice that every time the command is given, there’s a
promise attached (v.5-6, 7, 9, 18). Sometimes it looks like “I will never leave
you nor forsake you” and other times it’s a promise of success or prosperity in
accomplishing the mission.
Here’s where it
gets real for you and me: We are all called
by God to be bold and courageous in the mission and journey He’s
laid before us.
Even when we feel
unqualified, scared, or confused about the mission we’re on, it’s up to us to
understand our role in the mission. One of my mentors always brings me back to
this point: there’s God’s part, my part, and their part. I can rest assured
that God has got His end covered because He’s God. I can’t worry, control, or
do anything about what other people in my life choose to do. All I can do, and
should focus on, is my part. In the Joshua example, Joshua simply had to do his
part, which was to be the leader and trust in the promises of God. Of course he
didn’t have all the answers and of course there were moments of turmoil along
the way, but if you read the rest of the book of Joshua, you see the LORD do
incredible things through Joshua because of his extreme trust and faith in the
LORD.
In my very
limited life experience of 26 years, I’ve come to understand courage isn’t
always about being the first man fighting on the front lines of the battle.
While I think there are definitely seasons of life where we need to be that
courageous, I think there’s another way we can understand courage. Courage
sometimes looks more like trusting God so much that we’re ok with
not having the answers and therefore we rest in Him and His promises instead of
our abilities, talents, and laboring. It takes courage to trust God
during situations we can’t understand, can’t control, can’t explain, and can’t
see what the end result will be. This is where I believe courage manifests into
deeper faith as well. Oswald Chambers says it beautifully: “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character
of God whose ways you may not understand at the time”.
No matter what
season of life you’re in and no matter what the difficulty looks like -
emotional, physical, or spiritual - know that God is good and has not and will
not ever change. He has set the course of your life on a path for
His glory and whether we understand all the implications of that or not isn’t
the point. The point is to learn to lean on and praise Him in the low days and
to express gratitude and humility in the days where we’re on top of the world.
Courage is a
narrow road that helps us follow and know God better. Don’t worry if you
stumble and fall, because if you’re human you probably will. It’s not where you
start but how you finish that matters; so finish well. Winston Churchill once
said that “success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to
continue that counts”.
So wherever
you’re at today, know that we can be bold and courageous because we know that
He who commands us is faithful and His promises are true and forever. Don’t
stand on what you feel…stand firm on what you know to be true. Trust in the
promises of God and Scripture and be courageous enough to know that seasons
come and seasons go, but in all things God remains the same.
Written by Brett Ricley
Brett
is a husband, father, disciple of Jesus, and a disciple maker in full time
campus ministry for Impact Campus Ministries in Salt Lake City, UT. Brett
writes about faith and campus ministry on his blog: Living to Display
the Gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment