Courage

Courage is strength in the face of pain or grief. The virtue of courage is strength to stand up for what is right when life gets hard. Courage is a virtue that is immediately helpful for navigating this life.

Like making strong tea, courage comes from a long steep in the scriptures and prayer. Courage is sacrificial because it comes from a long steep in spiritual discipline.

In the Old Testament, courage for Israel was enacted by keeping God’s law. Courage as an act of faith. Courage in Joshua’s day was to establish the nation of Israel in the Promised Land.

For the Christian, courage is not merely the Stoic virtue–standing strong–but a quality of life, based on faith in the presence of Christ. We don’t have a ‘grin and bear it’ attitude, but a more than natural one that expects to see victory in every opposition. Courage today is to establish God’s people for God’s Eternal Kingdom.