Courage To Face Your Fears
This is the third part in our series on ‘COURAGE TO FACE YOUR FEARS’. Courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear.
According to our text;2Tim.1:7 – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”, the source of that spirit is God. Other counterfeit forms of it are arrogance, self-will and pride. As with everything that comes from God, the courage we are called to exercise must first of all be ‘coated’ in love and humility and shown with a mature sense of responsibility.
This is especially important when dealing with life’s difficult moments. Such moments include when we have to say ‘No’ to those we love dearly e.g. our children, close friends or relations, fellow church members, colleagues, employees, etc. Just the thought of having to say ‘no’ paralyze people into silence, in some cases until it becomes too late, even in the face of obvious possible scenarios of things going wrong! Ignoring a bad situation hoping that it becomes better with time is not a winning strategy! A Christian is a person that lives within the boundaries of God’s laws. ‘No’ is boundary word (Matt. 5:37). You have a responsibility to speak up whenever the clear lines of the Scripture is being crossed or whenever you hear the ‘still, small voice’ of His Spirit in your heart.
The loss of a friendship is one reason people remain ensnared in a relationship. ‘People come, people go’, but God’s love remains constant. That is one of the unfortunate REALITIES of this life. We can get into real trouble when we seek to ignore such truths out of misplaced feelings. That was one of David’s many mistakes. Michal was David’s past and he should have simply been content with the sweet memories of the past, instead of insisting on recreating it. But what does the Scripture say? “Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. (2Sam.6:16). Have the courage to say ‘No’ to yourself, your children or relations if that is what is needed. Only God can give life to the ‘dead’! Do not empower any relationship that despises your values, your beliefs or your worth, and neither should you “cast your pearls before swine”.
Other times when we need the courage to face our fear is when we are faced with the choice of following our personal convictions. There comes a time when destiny beckons. And the path of destiny, it has been said, is a lonely one. But when the sudden but loud voice of destiny calls, forcing you to veer off the popular route or go against the grain, like Moses was, how would you react? Acts 7:23 said when Moses was “forty years old,it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel”. That little word “it” pulled Moses out of the palace into the pit, from luxury into penury, from comfort to uncertainty. It changed his address, his friends, his plans and his profession. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. were people of destiny who had the courage to make difficult decisions knowing exactly what was involved when they made their choice. Timidity can make the difference between a life of obscurity and a fulfilling life of purpose and meaning.
Life is one consistent stream of difficult decisions. Every right decision we make gives us a leap in life, and everytime we refuse to act, we rob ourselves of growth, progress, time and opportunity. Like we’ve already noted, ignoring a bad situation hoping that it becomes better with time is not a winning strategy. I encourage you, dear friend, to summon every courage to deal with any bad habit or behavior, addiction, attitude or sin TODAY! Procrastinating will not help. You need to also understand that one of Satan’s most popular words is‘tomorrow‘, as against God’s, which is NOW or TODAY -“… Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”. (2Cor.6:2). Have you noticed that whenever God tells us to do something right away, Satan will suggest that we take it easy; that we can still do the same thing ‘tomorrow‘, just to throw us off God’s timing? You may as well deal with it NOW.
Take this example. Through one careless utterance, Joab, his nephew emerged to become David’s army captain. But for most of the time he was also his chief tormentor for life! Twice, David made a feeble attempt to kick him out of that position but failed. And twice he killed the people David preferred to him – Abner(2Sam.3:27-39) and Amasa (2Sam.20:4-13). Listen to David lament, “And even though I am the anointed king, these two sons of Zeruiah—Joab and Abishai—are too strong for me to control. So may the Lord repay these evil men for their evil deeds.” (2 Sam.3:39 NLT).Thereafter David either couldn’t bring himself to change him again or kept postponing until the time of his death. True, Joab has been a great help to David having stood with him from the beginning to the end, but he also had a very little regard for David. May our dear heavenly Father NEVER allow one mistake of your life to become your ‘prison’ for the rest of it in Jesus’ name! At the end Joab almost succeeded in thwarting God’s plan for Israel by installing Adonijah as king. (1Kg.1:7). Solomon was the one who had to clean up after his father (1Kg.2:5-6). The lesson – the right decision or action you don’t take TODAY might even threaten your future!
My dear friend, the Lord has not given to you “a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind“. I want you to have the COURAGE to ‘rebel’ against any peer pressure, popular opinion and every negative aspect of your culture and tradition. Let today be your last day of comforming, behaving or talking like everybody else. I declare over your life; ‘You have the POWER to say ‘No’ to every sin, the COURAGE to follow your personal Convictions and the Boldness to take whatever decision the Lord wants you to, so that you’ll become all that He has called you be in Jesus’ name’. And the time to it is now! I love you.
Dr. I. S. James
