The three essential components of courage …

The exhortation to not be afraid, but instead be courageous, reverberates throughout the Bible.

We need that command and encouragement because we live lives constantly challenged by fear. The measure of courage we exact in our lives directly impacts the fullness and richness of our lives because without courage, we allow fear to curb our engagement in living.

Eddie Rickenbacker, writing for Bits & Pieces, noted, “Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson seized on the essential need for courage when he wrote, “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”

With the need for courage, and the biblical exhortation to be courageous people, let’s briefly look at the three essential components of courage, without which we’ll lack the audacity to act courageously …

FAITH IN GOD
Whether you really trust God, or just intellectually believe He’s trustable, will directly impact your capacity for courage. That’s because life will be filled with people, challenges, troubles, and trials that are bigger than you are, and capable of defeating you. You’ll need courage to face them, engage them, and work your way through them to victory.

But how do you do that when you can see they’re “bigger” than you?

By trusting in the fact that as a child of God, you belong to, are cared for, and protected by the One who is sovereign over all, and is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (everywhere). There’s no person or circumstance you can ever face that is equal or superior to God. There’s nothing you can face that, with God, you cannot be victorious over. The Apostle Paul stated this truth like this …

“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength,” Philippians 4:13.

By knowing we experience that wondrous combination of God loving us and God leading us, we can be courageous in following Him through life, no matter where the journey may lead or the challenges along the way.

RATIONAL THINKING
Civil War general, William Tecumseh Sherman, once quipped, “I would define true courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.”

Sherman was insightful identifying the role of our mental state — our thinking — regarding our ability to act with courage. That’s because our natural inclination for irrational thinking can squelch our trust in God and magnify our fears to the point we shrink back from engaging with what scares us.

But when we consciously discipline ourselves to think rationally — which includes reminding ourselves of the superiority of our God over our challenges — we’re more willing to trust God and face our fears. That was what the Apostle Paul learned through a very scary experience in his life …

“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die …” 2 Corinthians 1:8-9a.

Paul experienced life circumstances that were bigger than he was, and initially he felt a fear that resulted in a reaction of despair. BUT, by thinking more rationally, especially about the God whom he served, he was able to take courage …

“In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us,” 2 Corinthians 1:9-10.

In my experience as a Christian clinical therapist, I’ve observed one of the most common problems people face is paralyzing themselves with fear because of irrational thinking. We have a great propensity to play over and over in our minds the most irrational thoughts which only create, feed, and then enlarge our fears. But when we change our thinking, we change our ability to think rationally and act boldly, often in spite of being scared. This truth is captured in a dramatic story contained in the book, “Miracles of Courage,” by Monica Dickens:

David, a two-year-old with leukemia, was taken by his mother, Deborah, to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to see Dr. John Truman, who specializes in treating children with cancer and various blood diseases. Dr. Truman’s prognosis was devastating: “He has a 50-50 chance.” The countless clinic visits, the blood tests, the intravenous drugs, the fear and pain — the mother’s ordeal can be almost as bad as the child’s because she must stand by, unable to bear the pain herself. David never cried in the waiting room, and although his friends in the clinic had to hurt him and stick needles in him, he hustled in ahead of his mother with a smile, sure of the welcome he always got. When he was three, David had to have a spinal tap — a painful procedure at any age. It was explained to him that, because he was sick, Dr. Truman had to do something to make him better. “If it hurts, remember it’s because he loves you,” Deborah said. The procedure was horrendous. It took three nurses to hold David still, while he yelled and sobbed and struggled. When it was almost over, the tiny boy, soaked in sweat and tears, looked up at the doctor and gasped, “Thank you, Dr. Tooman, for my hurting.”

ENGAGEMENT
You can claim to have great faith in God, and you can think as rationally as possible, but if you fail to engage, your fears have beat you.

To be courageous, you must engage with what scares you.

Pastor Charles Swindoll relayed a story that shows just how easy we can fail to engage, even in a setting where it should be easy to do so …

There was a test conducted by a university where 10 students were placed in a room. three lines of varying length were drawn on a card. The students were told to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the longest line. But nine of the students had been instructed beforehand to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the second longest line. One student was the stooge. The usual reaction of the stooge was to put his hand up, look around, and realizing he was all alone, pull it back down. This happened 75 percent of the time, with students from grade school through high school. The researchers concluded that many would rather be president than be right.

To be courageous, you must engage your fears with faith and rational thinking.

CONCLUSION
If you find yourself to be lacking in courage, then you likely are either lacking a genuine and applied trust in God; or allowing your thoughts to be irrational so that they fan the flames of your fears; or you’ve yet to take that last essential step of engaging your fears with faith and a sound mind.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline,” 2 Timothy 1:7.

To help you be consistent in exercising courage, build into your life as routines those things that feed your faith and trust in God; consciously practice maintaining a rational thought life (a skilled Christian clinical therapist can provide great training for this); and eliminate any hints of procrastination by constantly being actively engaged in living.

Remember, the fullness and richness of your life will be directly impacted by your willingness to be courageous. Don’t let your fears rob you of the whole and fulfilling life God has for you.

Scotty