“Be Strong and of Good Courage”

Please be courageous and read these verses BEFORE reading the comments!!

1. De 31:6  “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
2. Jos 1:9  “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
3. 1Ch 19:13  “Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what is good in His sight.”
4. Ps 27:14  Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!
5. Ps 31:24  Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD.

Courage is often substituted with something else.  Instead of courage, we judge someone else (lacking courage ourselves we judge those who are acting in courage).  Instead of courage we complain (“Our leaders are trying to lead us into difficult situations”).  Instead of courage we blame others for not witnessing to those to whom God has called us to witness.  Instead of courage we go in the opposite direction from that in which God is leading (remember Jonah).  And the list could go on, for when we lack courage to do anything that God is leading us to do, we can quickly substitute anything that appears to give us an excuse to not do as God is commanding (Satan holds out to us the excuse and we readily receive it).

The Christian men and women who have become, and are becoming today, giants in the Walk of Christ, are men and women who willingly received from God the courage to act in complete obedience to His commands.  Not selective obedience, but complete obedience.  O, we may say, “I don’t act selectively regarding God’s commands”.  But the truth is: Most of the church of Christ acts extremely selective when it comes to Christ’s commands.  We often lack the courage needed to act, and we don’t want God to give it to us.  God says, “I want you to abandon your present life style and do only want I tell you to do.”  We say, “But God, I have to feed my family and if I do what you say, they will starve” (and other variations of “if I do what you say“)   We don’t trust God.  We don’t have courage to walk into the unknown and follow Christ exclusively. 

To have courage we must remember these words and remember Who said them: ” Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”