Courage doesn’t panic, it prays. Courage doesn’t bemoan, it believes. Courage listens to the voice of God calling through scripture 

Courage is hard for me. Not because I don’t think I’m courageous or should be, but because I think courage is misunderstood, or maybe its just me.  But when I think about “courage”, the visual that comes to my mind is soldiers going to war (thank you for your service), I think about insane tests of strength and fortitude in order to define “courage”. 

But did you know – that’s not the only way to look at courage?! 

If you google the definition of courage, one answer is “strength in the face of pain or grief.”

WOW

Now take that definition and compare it back to the quote above.

We have strength in the face of pain and grief because we don’t panic, we pray. We don’t bemoan, we believe and we listen to the voice of God calling through scripture! 

I remember my mom telling me to be careful what I pray for – if you pray for strength, courage, patience, and wisdom – God isn’t going to just give those things to you, you have to earn them. 

That’s the catch that no one tells you about. 

I’ve been sitting here most of my life just praying away – asking for things like I am sitting on Santa’s lap – to be kind, patient, strong, brave etc etc etc; not realizing that these are not things that you just receive, these are things that must be developed through experiences.

When you pray for strength, God will give you challenges to make you strong.

When you pray for courage, God will put you in situations where you have to be brave.

When you pray for wisdom, God will put problems in your life that you have to solve.

When you pray for patience, God will make you wait.

This is how he develops us – just like a good Father would & should. If we simply received all we asked for, we wouldn’t appreciate what we have. So he makes us earn the things that we want. 

My prayer for you is that in whatever you are going through, you pray, you believe, and you listen to the voice of God. Courage is not given, it’s earned and some of us have had to endure enough to quite boldly claim our courageousness – Amen!

XO

Tay