As we head into another week of work, family activity, leisure, and meeting for worship in our local church congregations, we will be given many opportunities to act and speak with courage and conviction. After all, moral courage it is not merely for people in high positions — King Josiah, Martin Luther, William Wilberforce — we everyday Christians must also express such boldness if the Kingdom of Christ is to be advanced in our day.
Perhaps this is the boldness to share your faith with a friend. Maybe you need courage and consistency in parenting the children God has entrusted to your care; or wisdom in an important conversation with your teenager. Or, perhaps you simply need a bit of renewed bravery to get up tomorrow do what is set before to do, pay your bills, love your spouse, weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
If Christ-in-you courage is what you need today, then hear two quick words for inspiration.
First, as Moses passed the baton of leadership to Joshua, God spoke these words to the younger man:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9 ESV)
Second, hear the words of President Theodore Roosevelt. Note, although this text comes from a famous speech he gave, I deliberately chose a picture of Roosevelt with his family he held so dear. He would be the first to say that the man or woman “in the arena” of daily domestic activities stands in need of continual fresh supplies of courage. Here is the quote:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. (full speech here).
Have a great week by making it a great week, come what may.