Be Courageous and Confident!

Fear has a way of controlling our thoughts, motives and even our very movement in life. It basically becomes a threat to our dreams and plans for life. When that fear strikes us, what do we do, how do we find the courage to paddle through that tormenting feeling called fear. One important thing that I have learned in my journey with Christ is that He is the source of everything, the source of even the courage I need to paddle through life, strong and confident.

It is only when you go through a scary situation and you paddle through it despite fear that strikes your heart like a burning knife that you truly realise that God has blessed you with a gift of courage. We can’t wait for courage to pitch up until we act, we need to act now despite the feeling of fear, just like Joyce Meyer usually says, “courage is not an absence of fear but its acting despite that feeling, not allowing it to stand in the way of what you need to do.” When you worry it’s dangerous as it pushes you towards disbelief, making you doubt what you know as the truth and in a way fills your head with lies and negativity.

You don’t need to be a talkative person, a person who is not shy in order for you to be used by God or to do what God has appointed you to do at church, school, university, work or even in your community, but all we should remember at all times is that our Lord Jesus Christ is with us all the way. So do not allow your weakness to define you, be confident and courageous in the Lord.

The story in the book of Mark chapter 10 verses 46-52 is a very significant and powerful story that we as born-again Christians can learn from about faith and the power of being courageous and not allowing fear to stand in the way of what you want or need in life. As you read through this, I want you to notice mainly the character of the blind man, observe it and learn from it.

Mark 10: 46-52: “46 Then they come to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), was sitting by the road side begging. 47 when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me! 48 many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me! 49 Jesus stopped and said, call him. So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’50 Throwing His cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51 what do you want me to do for you? The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ 52 ‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”

Do not allow people to threaten you, be like the blind man who kept on pushing despite fear and whatever people said, he knew exactly what he wanted and went after it. He realised and knew at heart that it was not about the disciples, but about Jesus.

Christianity is an individual matter so stop leaning and depending on anyone else but God – stand on your own and seek God for yourself, fulfil your life purpose despite fear or challenges on your way, do whatever it takes to get the attention of our Lord Jesus Christ. So stop making unfaithful pastors or churches be your excuse in not doing what you know in your heart is right and you are destined to do. It is time we stop using that lame excuse, you came on planet earth alone, you were created by God with His own unique purpose for your life, so why the need of wanting a crowd’s confirmation before you can act or start being serious and committed in the things of God. You need to believe that God can change any situation; to Him nothing is impossible so trust Him with your life. You need to allow God to be the master of everything in your life.

So stop cursing yourself, because today you are what you are because of what you spoke into your life years ago and still speak into your life even today. It is important that you speak words that will build, encourage and drive you towards greatness and not words that will break you and cause destruction in your life. Being courageous also has to do with what we believe about ourselves and what words we speak into our life. If we speak victoriously and courageously, we will also be victorious and courageous. God knows all your mistakes, sins and weaknesses but even that has not made Him change His great thoughts about you. He still has the best plans for you.

We need to be faithful to the word of God and Him as our Lord and Saviour and one way we can do that is do as it tells us, believe in it and let it guide us. This can start by not allowing fear to control us and believing the word of God when it tells us we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us and that in us He has not deposited a spirit of fear but rather power, love and self-discipline.

Many young people have allowed fear to stand in the way of being used by God, mainly because they are too scared to stand before a crowd. They fear that they will be laughed at and that people will judge and criticise them. I know exactly how it feels to want to do something so bad, for God to give you chance after chance to do His work but because of the stronghold of fear over your life you chicken out. In other words, you bow down to the spirit of fear and allow it to control and rule over your life, over what you can do or even what you should say.

The spirit of fear cripples you. It causes so much confusion in your life, you are never at peace, because you are guilty, guilty of not having done what you know very well you were supposed to do. This is a way in which the devil can steal your joy and peace and basically stand in the way of your growth and your relationship with God being deepened.

The devil knows very well that living with fear means you don’t have absolute trust in God and what He can do for you. He was once with God and he knows very well that faith is what pleases God, so he is trying to take that from you in order to deny you the opportunity of pleasing God.

You know the devil can put so many forms of things in your way to erupt fear in you, he can convince you that your English is not good enough and even use people to be a confirmation to those thoughts he has triggered in your mind. But you know what? It does not matter, good or bad English, it does not matter. As I said before God knows everything about you, even your weakness in a particular language, if that’s the case, but guess what, that does not stop God from wanting to use you and using you.

So go ahead and do what God has laid in your heart, stop allowing the standard of the world to question and stand in the way of God’s purpose for your life. Your lack of education, your stuttering, etc. should never be an excuse that you can’t do this or that, just know and believe me He has a reason for choosing you and not the person that you think deserves the role. God does not choose or judge as the world does or weigh things as man does but He looks at the unseen in you.

Don’t allow anyone or anything to discourage you, continue to encourage yourself. Don’t even allow anyone or the devil to use your past/background to undermine you. It does not matter what you are competing with, if God is on your side nothing can stand in your way, You and Him, there is no limitation to what you can achieve.

                                                              SELAH!