Day 120: The Courage to Act

1 Chronicles 28:20

David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Joshua 1:6,9

Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them...Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Sometimes we are tasked with something that seems overwhelming, and the broadness of the task makes it look impossible. Sometimes the things we are meant to conquer does not seem conquerable. These are the moments God tells us to be strong and courageous. Even though we are afraid and we have no clue what the outcome will be we have to approach as if we know with every ounce of our being that we will be alright.

Courage-the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty,danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

My favorite part about this definition is it says that is the the quality of the mind or spirit that enables a person. It is the quality of our mind and spirit that allows us to face difficulty, danger, fear, or whatever it may be. The simple definition of quality is how good or bad something is. Our mind has to be focused on God and our spirits in tune with Him, only then can we find the courage to face the things in life that nearly paralyzes us with fear. It is faith in knowing that God goes before us, that He is bigger than what seems to be the biggest mountain in our lives. He’s there to help us climb even when we think we can’t. When we think we can’t do something, we look to God and see just how great He is. How he equips us to do the very things we think we are incapable of doing. The thing about God is that He is capable of everything and anything.

This brings me back to the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17), but also Goliath and Israel. Goliath was a champion and by the way he talked he thought he was untouchable, and up until this point he probably was. The way he was described, he’s the guy that you don’t want to mess with. He comes and calls out the army of Israel, they were all there for a battle. Then Goliath comes and basically says, “Try me.” He tells them to send someone and if that person is able to kill him then they will be servants to the Israelites. Saul and the Israelites were shaking in their boots, they were scared. David comes and he’s like, do not be afraid, I got this. Saul is like, no you're too young, this man has been fighting wars since his youth. David was like, I’ve taken down lions and bears, I can take him down too.  

Then David says, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” David knew that it was God who would equip him with whatever he needed to defeat Goliath. He wasn’t out there fighting lions and bears alone, he knew that it was God delivered him from the hands of these beasts, that could have ripped him to pieces.

*It’s about to get crazy. *

They go to put armour on David and it wasn’t good for him. He hadn’t tested the armour so he said he could not fight with it. He took the armour off,

*pause, he took off his armour to go fight Goliath, a war champion. WHAT!?!*

Not only does he take of the armour he goes and picks out five rocks, puts it in his pouch and heads toward Goliath.

*Okay pause for another second.

Now if I were there I would have been afraid for David, Just like, what are you doing David! You need this armour. What are you going to do with rocks! Have you seen him?! I would have been having a melt down.* But David doesn’t, he courageously walked into the face of danger carrying five rocks in a pouch. The Philistine sees David’s size and starts trash talking, and David is #unbothered. He tells the Philistine that he comes in the name of the Lord, and that God will deliver him (Goliath) into his heads. David then proceeds to tell Him, not only will I kill you but I will cut off your head. By this point you just kind of start rooting for David, like I don’t know how you are going to do it, but I know you are.  

*Here’s where it gets intense.*

David ran towards the battle line as the Philistine started approaching. He ran confidently with five rocks in a pouch up against a fully armed war champion. David took a rock and slung it and hit the Philistine in the forehead. the scripture says, “The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.” Then he cut off his head with his own sword.  

All that to say, that if david can defeat Goliath with a rock, then we can conquer every giant in our lives. We have to have faith in God, and know that apart from him we can do nothing. I know it’s scary and sometimes we have to put ourselves directly in the crossfire. Sometimes we have to run straight into the face of danger in order to defeat it. We have to be strong and courageous, as God tells Joshua.  Courage gives us strength even when we are afraid.

God is calling us to do things that might scare the crap out of us, but He is there with us every step of the way. We just have to act, do it. Even if you’re trembling, do it, and do it courageously. Fear does not belong to us, and it will not stop us from conquering these giants and mountains in our lives. Courage will enable us to do the things we thought we could never do. We find this courage in the Lord, we have it through him. Our spirits are fed by God and His word, and that is where we get courage from. Know that you are capable and you cannot do it alone. God’s got your back, if He tells you to step forward, don’t back down.

Reflection

1. Is there a Goliath in your life?

Prayer Time

Allow your answer to the above question guide your prayer today. Whatever struggles or fears you have give it to God. Talk to God about whatever is on your heart today, whatever stood out to you talk to God about it. Have a conversation with God.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 121! Enjoy you weekend, and if you are going into finals week, you are in my prayers.

Day 38: Glorify God NOT The Struggle

Psalms 86:12

I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever

We can all say that we’ve been gone through some hard times in our lives, we have bad days, and we go through rainy seasons, and dark valleys. It’s inevitable, it’s just how life is, sometimes it’s hard. However, with that being said, I feel like humanity loves to glorify the struggle, we credit our pain, and struggle for getting us where we are, as opposed to thanking and glorifying God for bringing us out of those dark valleys and low places. Because it definitely wasn’t us, we didn’t get ourselves out, so why is it that when we get out of the rainy season, we act like it was our strength and our strength alone? We thank the people that held us down because “it’s the only reason we were strong enough to get up.” We thank the haters because they “make us better”. But we tend to forget about the people who stayed praying for us, we forget to thank God for the good times. If I’m being honest it’s the prayers of our mothers, our elders, our peers. It’s Jesus standing at the right hand of God constantly interceding for us. But we choose to glorify the things and people that could care less about how far we’ve come from where we used to be. That makes no sense.

The scriptures says; Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. (Psalms 100:1-3)

Every moment of our lives we must glorify God, we must remember to thank thank Him for the things He does for us. What keeps us from glorifying God and thanking Him for bringing us through the hard times in our lives, is our pride. We want the credit. We want everyone to see we made, especially our haters.  Everyone wants to be “self-made”. We want everyone to know that we climbed to the top on our own, we made our own paths, we got to the top because of our hard work and dedication. Yes, but too often we forget that we are standing on the shoulders of our savior, we are standing on the shoulders of all the people who prayed for us. We are standing on the shoulders of our elders. But we got there “alone”.  It is God who made us, not we ourselves, we are merely vessels used to bring Him glory.

Today we’re going to keep it simple and sweet, but I want to end with this story.

Luke 17:11-19

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Reflection

1. Based on the above passage, think back and reflect, how often have you been the one out of the ten that came to thank Jesus?
2. How often have you been the ten?
3. Based on your answers to the above questions, what can you do to change or improve your answer?
4. Why do you think we as young people tend to glorify our struggle?

Prayer Time

Reread the passage above, and ask God to help you become the one that will always come back and thank Him. Take the time today to just honor and glorify God for all the things in your life, all the good things, even the struggle because He is glorified even in the darkest moments.

Be thankful for the good things happening in your life today and everyday. Pay no attention to those holding your down, or those who don’t want you to succeed. Remember the ones that are praying for you, the ones that lift you higher so you can reach your potential.

I love you! Have an amazing day and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 39!