God Is In Control So Have Courage!

Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. - Nelson Mandela

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. - Mark Twain

There are no easy answers but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. - Ronald Reagan

Courage. What a lovely big subject, friends! (It's one that I've tackled before - here, if you're interested.)

I've been thinking about it a wee bit lately (hence the post, lol! I tend to post on what I've been thinking about, don't I)  and I thought I might share some of my thoughts.

You will have noticed that bunch of lovely quotes from some very famous folk about this subject. What I wanted to mostly talk about was the Nelson Mandela quote. Here it is again, just because I want to put it in again.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. - Nelson Mandela

Isn't that so profound? But what's more - isn't it so true?

If you think about some of the really famous courageous people from history, what about David and Mary (from the Bible) for example, I think we can be pretty sure that they were not courageous because they didn't feel afraid, but courageous because they conquered their fear.

Courage is not the absence of fear. Guess what. That means we're allowed to feel scared. (We're allowed to feel scared! *excited happy dance* Yay! I'm allowed to be afraid!) It doesn't mean, however, that I can go hide under a bush and sit there in my own little scared shell and refuse to do whatever it was that scared me. That is not courage. That is cowardice. 

You see, it's the action not the feeling that changes us from coward to courageous. 

It's the act of triumphing over the fear. The action of conquering our fear and being brave anyway. As I said before, we are allowed to be scared. But we must conquer our timidity and rise above it if we want to show courage.

Let's take Mary, Jesus' mother as an example. (We've just had Christmas. She's a great example.) She was probably only a young teenage girl when this angel turns up and tells her that she's going to have a baby. Not just any baby. Jesus Christ, Saviour of the entire world. Saviour of all of mankind. I am quite sure that Mary would not have just been afraid. She would have been terrified. (Well face it, I would have been if I was her.) This is scared-out-of-your-socks material here!

Yet what did she do? She told the angel that she was the Lord's servant and asked that God's word be fulfilled. That, to me, seems awfully like the act of conquering her fear. 

Now I'm sure that no matter what situations we're facing, it's not quite as scary as what Mary faced. (Well okay I don't know what you're facing but even if it is bigger and scarier than what Mary faced, the following still applies. :) ) God is in control.

Let me say that again, this time in a huge font and purple letters. Just to make sure you get the message.

God is in control.

And what's more, he will always be in control. God is bigger than our circumstances. He is with us. He. Will. Not. Fail. Did you hear that? He. Will. Not. Fail.

Trust in God, because He knows the situation and He will never fail.

Matthew 19:26

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Joshua 1:9
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.

God is in control... and He will always be in control!

PS. Starting today, I will be on camp for a week. All posts posted between now and the 16th of January have been scheduled.