But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, “Courage, dear heart,” and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan’s, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face.
~C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die.
~GK Chesterton
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
~ Moses, in Deuteronomy 31
Oh beloved, it is true. We are to be strong and of good courage. But we forget something that is vital in the process. We are to be of GOOD courage. And there is no one Good, but G_d.
So, an entry like this need not go on very long. We all know the struggles and the temptations to fear and cower before the issues that are before us.
One only needs to look to the roots of the word to get the point: Middle English (denoting the heart, as the seat of feelings): from Old French corage, from Latin cor ‘heart’.
If our “courage” is born of the bravado of our flesh it is doomed to fail. We mail “feel” courageous for a few moments (or even months) with this false version of the real thing. But fail it will, because it is not really Good courage.
No, courage comes from Him. It is Him. It is His Life at work in us and through us. The “Good Courage” spoken of in The Word is actually me literally getting off the throne of my being and allowing G_d to own and operate my being.
Can we see it? We do not grow in courage by gaining strength. We become courageous when we step aside and let G_d take His rightful place in our bodies and souls and spirits. Test this in your life beloved. You know this fool of a writer speaks truth.
So, do you feel yourself cowering in fear? Do you feel yourself raging against your own failures and mistakes? I do – and more often than I would like to admit. Could the problem be that we are looking in exactly the wrong place for courage? Tonight is your night beloved. Time to quit looking inside yourself for strength and look to Him instead.
Beware of hindering yourselves with any weight of earthly cares. Examine your hearts most closely, and purge out each besetting sin with a godly prayerful jealousy. Remember that blessed rule, “looking unto Jesus.” Peter did run well for a time, when he left the ship to walk upon the sea to Jesus—but when he saw the waves and the storm he was afraid and began to sink. Thus many a one sets out courageously—but after a while corruptions rise high within, corruptions are strong without, the eye is drawn off Jesus, the devil gets an advantage—and the soul begins to sink. Oh, keep your eye steadily fixed on Christ, and you shall go through fire and water and they shall not hurt you.
~ JC Ryle
