Be Courageous

Courage as defined in the dictionary is the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain etc., without fear. This definition will give you a better understanding of why Courage with all his courage was known as Courage the Cowardly Dog (for those that watched cartoons in the same time period as I did).

As Christians, courage and faith go hand in hand. Courage is what will make you act outwardly on what you see inwardly (Bishop T.D. Jakes); sounds like one of the key ingredients for faith, right? In the book of Joshua, the first chapter, God told Joshua to be courageous four different times. Why? The things God wanted to achieve through Joshua were great and mighty things and in order to achieve those things, Joshua needed courage. Courage to go where he had never been before. Courage to go from a P.A. to the CEO. Courage to take over the mantle of leadership from a man as great as Moses and take his people where they had never been before. As such, God needed to admonish him, not once, not twice but four times; and that was just in Joshua 1. Flip back to Deut. 31, Moses admonished the children of Israel to be strong and of good courage, then he turned to Joshua and admonished him to be strong and of good courage. In the space of two chapters, the phrase was repeated six times. Once to the children of Israel and five times to Joshua. But why was it so important to repeat the same phrase six different times?

If you read the history of the children of Israel, as they journeyed to the Promised Land, they faced many obstacles. One of the obstacles they faced was that of the Canaanites who were so big, the spies saw themselves as grasshoppers. Another was of a city so fortified it required a miracle to conquer. They needed to have the courage to stand and say they had come too far to turn around. As children of God, we are called to constantly act in faith and to do so, we need to have courage. It takes courage to step out and take territories. It takes courage to get back up after every setback, after every disappointment and chase your dream. It takes courage to keep applying for jobs over and over again, despite the numerous rejection emails (if you even get feedback). It takes courage to trust in God that your story will be different when the doctor gives you a bad report.

All I will ask you, like Bishop T.D Jakes asked is: do you have the courage to act outwardly on what you see inwardly? Or will you die a dreamer on the verge of almost (like the children of Israel almost did when they saw the Canaanites)? It takes nothing to be mediocre, to fit into normalcy, but if you want to be extraordinary, to win…. you need to have the courage! If you want to take territories like God commanded us to do in Deut. 1:8, you need to have the courage. If you want to take back all that the enemy has stolen from you, you need to have the courage (before David went after his enemies, he needed to encourage himself in the Lord (I Sam. 30:6)). Courage is key!

Ask yourself, do you have the courage?

P.S. Remember, real failure is when you fail to try. Be strong and of good courage!

Photo cred.: YouVersion Bible App

Additional resource: Courage by Bishop T.D. Jakes