Walking with God requires courage, integrity, and abandoning ourselves. I want to dedicate this post my mother and grandmother who demonstrated these truths in their walks of faith! Thanks to all of the Godly women who have set an example for us all!
Taylor Combs writes about courage and how we can be courageous because Jesus has overcome. Quotes and insights come from his post on Lifeway voices:
Be Courageous; Jesus Has Overcome
Courage comes when we choose to wait and trust in God instead of setting out on our own paths! Notice that he adds the phrase “come what may.” God doesn’t promise anyone an easy, prosperous (materially) journey of faith. God’s Word [specifically Jesus’ and Paul’s teaching] clearly informs us that we will face trials, temptations, illnesses, times of sorrow, etc.
It’s appropriate and right for us to pray for strength and courage as we face the difficulties of life! That’s why Jesus woke up early and would withdraw to quiet, isolated areas to communion with His Heavenly Father. If Jesus sought God daily for strength, so should we!
One of the key aspects of Taylor’s descriptions of courage is “the absence of self.” Life with Christ is about His glory and honor. We serve a Risen Savior and Lord who is so much greater than our difficulties, sorrows, and problems. I don’t have to be important or significant to serve an Infinite God!
God’s Word reveals that God delights in calling and working through common, everyday people with flaws, insecurities, and problems. Also important is the concept of integrity. Integrity involves “the state of being whole and undivided” (Oxford Languages). Integrity of faith includes the concept “wholeness” and the idea of being wholeheartedly devoted to God. James 1:8 warns about the “double-minded.” We can’t follow self, others, and the world and God too.
Have you devoted your entire life to Christ? Are you pushing ahead in your walk of faith especially during uncertain times? I list these following thoughts on courage from Taylor’s definition.
The Call to Persevere in Our Walk
The following quotes and insights come from Oswald Chamber’s Devotion “The Faith to Persevere” https://utmost.org/the-faith-to-persevere/
God’s Holy Love is a consuming fire! God’s love is transformative. God’s love fills us to overflow with His presence. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have a confidence that enables us to approach Him in our times of need [Hebrews 4:14-16]. We can be faithful and courageous even when our “feelings” are weak and battered.
Faith requires effort and practice! This practice requires confidence and trust. Hebrews 10:18-24 proclaims the New and Living Way for us in Christ. So let us “draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” and “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” When reading Hebrews, we should remember that the early followers were facing severe persecution. The author in Chapter 10 verses 32-38 indicates trials. He encourages them to “live by faith” and to endure knowing that with “confidence, which has a great reward.”
We can make our faith our supreme work in our lives knowing that our efforts aren’t in vain! We daily choose to place our confidence in the world, ourselves, others, or in God. God is the only suitable refuge and foundation of confidence!
Jesus set us an example as He’s the “author and perfecter” Hebrews 12:2 of our faith. https://www.gotquestions.org/author-perfecter-faith.html
Let’s look to Him for our hope and confidence as He walks with us on our journey of faith! We must abandon ourselves knowing that God is a greater, higher purpose than our own limited understanding of things. As a humans, we tend to think about God in accordance with our past experiences and thoughts about God. The problem with this is that our “ideas” and thoughts aren’t necessarily correct or proper. God, Holy Spirit seeks to move us away from the incorrect and incomplete thoughts into a “proper” dependence on Him!
We have “places still untouched” by Jesus in our lives. It is likely that trials and difficulties come into our lives to reveal these areas. God works in our lives to bring us to completion in Him! This isn’t a quick, easy, or painless process. Jesus saves us completely through the work of sanctification. This occurs through God’s Work in our lives. Prayer, Bible study and application as well as living in a community of believers facilitates this process.
Oswald reminds us that eternal life is more than heaven or something good after this life ends. Eternal life begins at the moment of regeneration when God makes us spiritually alive. Jesus defines eternal life for us in John Chapter 17 as He prays:
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. NKJV John 17:3
John uses the word ginosko. This particular word implies intimate knowledge. This particular word for knowledge was used by 1st century Jews (Jewish idiom) to describe how a husband and wife “know” each other. Jesus’ Redemption enables us to know God in the form of an intimate relationship. God’s Word identifies believers as “adopted sons.”
https://biblehub.com/topical/s/sons_of_god_new_testament.htm
Our new identities in God and renewed natures gives us confidence to persevere when facing trials, difficulties, and perplexing seasons of life. Because we belong to God, He holds us (John Chapter 10:28-30). Jesus’ relationship to His Father enables Him to bring those who trust in Him into the same relationship! We thus become children of God redeemed from the evil kingdom of this world! Relationship is vital to endurance.
Walking with God, trusting in Him, and living for His Glory opens our lives to many “wonderful things.” By wonderful things, I mean the many Great Things and Ways of our Lord and Savior. God disciplines those He loves Hebrews 12:5-12. This discipline comes because of His love and relationship with us. We like sheep tend to go astray. We get distracted and wrongly focused on this world instead of God.
God’s Great Grace and Mercy draws us back. Let’s rest our lives on Him! Previously, I have written about entering God’s rest and walking with Him during uncertain times. May God grant you courage and hope to endure and press ahead in your journey of faith!
For His glory and to encourage your in your walk of faith I write,
Encouragement for your faith journey 