Monday, July 25, 2011

COURAGE IS NECESSARY FOR FAITH

Believing in the Lord means believing in what He says and acting on it, even when we feel fear.

·  It takes courage to let God use you as an 
   influence for Him.

God has a purpose in placing you among those you work with and associate with. God placed Joseph second in command under the Pharaoh, in order that he might save his people during a famine. There was Daniel who served in an influential position in both the Babylonian and the Medo-Persian empires. Esther married the king and became queen and was able to save the people of Israel. There was Nehemiah who served as Cupbearer to King Artaxerxes and was able to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem in spite of threats from enemies.

In each of these situations God placed someone in a key position in order to accomplish His divine plan. Mordecai said to Esther, “Who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 (NLT)

You can live for Christ where you live, work, recreate, shop, go to school, wherever. God places you among those who haven’t committed their lives to Christ yet for the purpose of having an influence on them. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13. Be salt where you live and work, and influence others towards Christ. Make them thirsty for Him.

God often places individual believers in key positions in a pagan society to accomplish His purposes. Any place where you rub shoulders with those who aren’t followers of Christ is a key place to be used by God. Your influence as a believer in Christ is not just through words but also by what is seen in your life.

·  It takes courage to live a Christ-like life without alienating those who may come to Christ.

You have to live in the culture, but you don’t have to let the culture totally rule you. We’re not of the culture; just living in it.

Jesus in His prayer for all who follow Him said, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world … They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:15-16. We are in the world, but not of the world. Sometimes Christians can push the “not of the world” so far that they’re not even “in the world”. And they alienate and push away those who aren’t followers of Jesus instead of attracting them to Him.

Yes, there is a dividing line. At some point with the culture, with those who are a part of the culture – you go a different direction than they do.

·  It takes courage to do your part and let God do His.

God gives the commands. He gives us the instructions. Through His Word He tells us what we are to do. Our responsibility is to follow through. He says, “Go and tell”, “Go and do”. We must “act” on His word.

God will do His responsibility. Be assured and reassured from His Word, from what He says – that He will show up. He will do His part. The more we grow in believing the Lord, the more obedient we become and the more certain we become of His faithfulness.

·  It takes courage to do what God commands.

When we leave off doing what God commands and teaches us through His Word, we will falter. We will become apprehensive and afraid. We will begin to rationalize our unfaithful behavior. We will live in sin.

The barricade we have available to us that can stand up against disobedience is the application of God’s Word to our lives. Take God’s Word and put it into practice and ask the Holy Spirit to be in control. Then we find we can take steps of obedience to the Lord and stay out of sin. Then we find that we have the strength to obey and trust God even when we feel fear.

1 comment:

  1. Courage...not the absence of fear but rather the presence of faith and obedience. For me, courage was always something I saw in others. I always saw my self as simply enduring what was out of my control...how sad as I look back on those dark days. I was always afraid I would say the wrong thing when talking about God to others...that I might misrepresent His word showing my inexperience as a Christian. The truth is that kind of thinking just closed the door to speaking at all for a long time. This message reveals to me that it wasn't about how I presented my words that I was afraid of, but how I was living my life in comparison to what I was saying. I've come to realize that God couldn't work through me until I got out of His way. I needed to stop casting shadows on His light. His words are more powerful than mine and I had not been faithful in reading them...no wonder I was afraid. For today and the days to come I pray that God will forgive my sins and always gently nudge me when I block His light of hope and salvation from others. I pray for a different type of endurance...not the kind that bides time until a crisis passes, but the type that God provides through His power, wisdom, love, and forgiveness which will always create in me the courage to remove myself and stand with God as I share His good news. With God as my BFF (Best Friend Forever)I will never be alone, unloved, unforgiven, without hope, or the courage to do what is right.

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