Have Faith, But Take Courage!...
Mark 6:50-52 (New Living Translation)
50) They were all terrified when they saw him.
But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!” 51) Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, 52) for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in.
50) They were all terrified when they saw him.
But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!” 51) Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, 52) for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in.
My mom use to say, when I was growing up, that it takes courage to be an original. She use to try to relay to me that it was nothing to follow, but it "took" a real strong person to be their own person. I remember thinking to myself that she had no clue what it was like to try to be a part of something, that it was a lot of hard work and effort to have friends and have faith in people. As I grew and matured I learned that to be your own person, a person that does not conform to the pressure of your peers or the crowd takes more courage then it takes to have faith in people, or things.
We are quick to have faith in things, people or our own abilities. It seems common place for us to take our confidence and cast it away, often on all the wrong things. But for many of us it takes God Himself, pushing us out of the nest ( out of our comfort zone) and into places unknown and situations that stretch us for us to take the courage that He is giving us and use it. You see to take something means that you would need to do something. To have faith is just giving something that you already have away. In order for one to take courage one is required to be conditioned, just as an athlete would train, to compete. We need to train our minds, our spirits and our emotions to be able to take something that does not always come so natural for us. It is learning to trust God explicitly, so that we understand that it is God being with us that really affords us the ability to take the courage we need to do and to succeed. In I John 4:4 it reminds us of this important fact, "Little children, you are of God [you belong to Him] and have [already] defeated and overcome them [the agents of the Antichrist], because He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world." That alone supplies us with the knowledge and strength we need to take courage to accomplish those things that seem impossible and to overcome fears that use to hold us captive and have kept us from living in the fullness of God, being able to see all that He would want from us.
Courage is an element that requires us to be proactive. It requires us to believe God and trust Him at His word. It is true that we should have faith and that we should stand in faith, but God has given all of us a measure of faith, what we do with that measure determines it strength and use. But courage can be allusive and can never be ours if we never make up in our mind to take it and make it our own. Taking courage and putting it in our arsenal, and to training with it and become an expert at it's uses is imperative to our success in Christ and in life. This is the day to stand and deliver, to take courage and conquer those things that have held us down, or made us fear who God has made us to be. With God before us and courage taken we can truly say to the mountain be removed and cast into the sea!
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