“But that isn’t right. The King of Beasts shouldn’t be a coward,'” said the Scarecrow.
‘I know it,’ returned the Lion, wiping a tear from his eye with the tip of his tail. ‘It is my great sorrow, and makes my life very unhappy. But whenever there is danger, my heart begins to beat fast.’
‘Perhaps you have heart disease,’ said the Tin Woodman.
‘It may be,’ said the Lion.”
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His heart beats fast…so does mine. Stepping out in faith can be scary. It will require courage. And it will most assuredly be accompanied by a fast beating heart.
Interestingly, the root word for courage is COR. COR is the Latin word for heart.
And courage has more to do with who holds our heart, and as we teach our children, who lives in our heart, than anything going on in our minds.
Jesus is our wellspring of courage. The only true, pure source of it.
The Bible is full of stories of people who were called out to do work in the face of opposition which would impact eternity.
But Jesus.
Fully human. Fully God. He felt those things that we feel as He walked the earth. He knows what it is to face danger in the midst of following our Father.
He also knows what it means to possess courage. To push through hard things for the greater good.
Being made in the Image of God, having invited Him into our lives as His daughters, we’ve been formed and were pre-destined to step out and do Kingdom Work despite what our minds try to tell us.
As we spend more time with Him, bravery will abound. Our fears will begin to fall. And we will surprise ourselves as we step out in strength, even if we’re still a little shaky.
What if we stopped questioning our Creator and started exercising courage?
The Bible is full of promises on the subject.
He has set you up for success, not failure. 2 Chronicles 32:7-8
He promises to walk you through it. Joshua 1:9
He is your source of courage. II Corinthians 3:12
What is He asking you to do that will require courage? Leave a relationship? Leave a job? Start a new career? Go back to school? For some, it may be simply to get out of bed.
This adventurous life with Jesus doesn’t take place in the safe zone. We can’t make an eternal difference here in the 10 minutes we’re on the planet if we stay paralyzed in fear. We can’t teach our children to be bold in their faith if we stay locked in our bubbles, never venturing out into the unknown.
The cowardly Lion took a chance when he ventured down the yellow brick road. And it paid off. So I’ll leave you the words of The Great Oz…and they sound a lot like words our Heavenly Father might would say.
“You have plenty of courage, I am sure,” answered Oz. “All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.”
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Simple Faith 