“Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them; for the Lord thy God, He it is who doth go with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” – Deuteronomy 31:6
Success demands courage. It is the virtue that will enable you to face your enemies with confidence. Do not let fear stop you from achieving your dream. It takes courage to succeed. Courage is the ability to be strong in the face of oppositions and challenges. There are oppositions and difficulties you meet when you want to succeed. Beloved, do not allow anything to intimidate you on your way to the top. In fact, every difficult situation you face in life can be overcome. With God on your side you can overcome every challenge in life, in marriage as well as in ministry. God said to Joshua,
“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 whithersoever thou goest.” – Joshua 1:9
Beloved, face every situation with courage. What God desires is that we display boldness in our walk with him. Life is about boldness nothing more nothing less. Your boldness will determine your level of effectiveness. I want you to be successful in every area of your life. You must become a person of courage. We live in an age of fear, where people are scared and look with suspicion upon anyone with a funny look. I want to challenge you to be very bold in every area of your life. Courage is a guarantee for success in life and ministry. Make it your habit to practice faith, where people’s lives are changed from the inside out. One wise man said,
“Faith cometh by hearing God whereas fear cometh by hearing the devil”
The need of the hour is great, that is why you need to be bold as a lion. I love this saying in America, “The land of the brave the home of the free.”
It takes the brave to be freed from every harassment of the devil. I strongly believe that, you can make a positive impact in your family, in your ministry as well as in the world by reason of courage. This is why courage is a must. You cannot substitute anything for courage in the school of success. The truth is that, you are born to succeed and to be a blessing to your generation. We need to pay close attention to the subject of “courage”.
You cannot do anything of significance in the kingdom without the spirit of boldness. Courage is the gateway to success. The people that show great courage when opportunities arise are destined to succeed in life and ministry. King David was a man of great courage. It takes courage to win the battles of life; no one likes to lose the battles that confront us. When David practiced the law of courage, it had a positive impact on Israel as a nation. Consider David in his battle with Goliath. Because of courage, he transformed the one paralyzed army of Israel into a force capable of defeating the Philistine army.
When Goliath threatened the army of Israel, the coward army of Israel forgot how to fight. They lacked the courage to face their enemies. They were intimidated by the philistine giant called Goliath. Although King Saul was an experienced soldier but he was coward. By virtue of courage, David sized up the opportunity, arose to the challenged, defeated Goliath and brought victory to the nation of Israel. Once he conquered Goliath, the Israelites army joined him to defeat the philistines. Courage is a function of strength. It induces inner strength.
“Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.” – Psalm 31:24
Beloved life is a battle and the weapon that is needed to fight this battle is called courage. The apostle Paul also fought a lot of battles in his life time. The good news was that he won all his battles; this is why he called it “a good fight”.
“I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me on that Day and not to me only, but unto all those also who love His appearing.”– 2 Timothy 4:7-8
Do not let anything to intimidate you from becoming successful. No matter the challenges, keep on fighting, do not give up. As long as it is day, there is hope. To succeed you need courage, use it to your advantage.
“Now it came to pass on a certain day, that He went into a boat with His disciples. And He said unto them; ‘Let us go over unto the other side of the lake.’ And they launched forth. But as they sailed, He fell asleep. And there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we perish.’ Then He arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; and they ceased, and there was calm.” Luke 8:22-24
Courage is the ability to be strong in the midst of storms. A storm arose on the Sea of Galilee and the disciples were scared, though they have seen Jesus perform many miracles signs and wonders yet they feared for their lives. The journey of life has its own challenges. Life at times can be boisterous like storms on the sea that threatened the disciples of Jesus.
You are not the first person that you are going through the storms of life neither will you be the last. No matter the storms you encounter in life you can turn to Christ for courage. When we do so, he calms our fear just as he calmed the wind and the storms that arose on the Sea of Galilee. I have walked through the challenges of life. Beloved, in much the same way, I was able to walk through life’s difficult days with the courage of God’s promises; you can go through as well.
Sometime I feel overwhelmed by the inevitable disappointment that occurs in life. Child of destiny, when you feel threatened, please turns to God. When you come to the dead end of your life and you are threatening by the storms of life, remember that the one who calmed the wind and the storms through some years ago is also your Lord and personal savior. Any time you find your courage tested to the limit, remember what the apostle Paul said,
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”– Hebrews 4:16
And also remember that God is your shield and your strength. Call upon him in your hour of need and he will answer you. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said,
“Courage faces fear and thereby masters it, coward represses fear and thereby mastered by it.”
Courage is the weapon of over comers. Many people have failed in life because of lack of courage. Be courageous; don’t allow fear to destroy your life. Fear has paralyzed many people on their way to the top. It can stop you on your way to destiny if you allow it. Beloved don’t be like Job who hid fear in his heart long before the devil sought permission from God to afflict him. It was fear that opened the door for the devil to afflict Job. In his pain Job later confessed
“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” – Job 3:25
It is quite obvious from this passage that, Mr. Job harbored fear in his heart prior to the affliction by the devil. You need to deal with every fear in your life. What you don’t deal with will eventually deal with you. Anything you don’t confront will eventually confront you. The only treatment for fear is called courage. It takes courage to declare,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me.” – Philippians 4:13
More insight about the subject of boldness please obtain Bishop George’s book entitled “The backbone of Overcomers.”