Courage On Another Level

Linda Prakash, Australia

Revelation 6, Hebrews 11

devotional

A lot can be said about courage. We often do not know that we have it until we need it. Courage for a Christian is very important. Almost all the stories in the Bible that we admire and remember took courage. The ones that move our hearts and our actions involve courage on monumental levels. Sometimes as Christians we casually read these stories and can become disconnected because we already know how the story ends. David kills the giant, Daniel isn’t eaten by the lions, the three guys in the fire don’t burn. Knowing how the story ends has a disadvantage. We almost forget about the courage and process involved before the victory. Sometimes putting ourselves in the story and seeing how we would respond can reveal a lot.

My desire for more courage was inspired by my readings in the book of Revelation 6 and Hebrews 11. In trying to understand one of the most baffling books in the Bible I stumbled upon a passage in Revelation 6:9-11 that took my interest. It seemed like those who went before us (the Davids’ and Marys’ of the Bible) were also waiting for the true Christians of today to complete their journey in Christ and come out victorious; and not just waiting but longing as if their joy and promise is not complete without us. The earlier Christians seemed to have an understanding of this eternal standing with GOD. Their hearts were fixated on the resurrection:

“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.” – Hebrews 11:35

I’m sure I read this chapter before but somehow I skipped over this part. I never noticed these earlier Christians literally asked to stay in prison for righteous crimes in order to gain a better resurrection. In v37 it says, “…they were stoned and sawed in two.” Seriously? Who has the courage to undergo even the thought of that! And the implications that it would involve. Obviously, the opening line to Christianity is not going to be, “Come follow Jesus so you can be sawed in two” because who would sign up for that? But many did sign up for just that. Once this thought sank in I began wondering how one finds the courage to face trials that are on another level. It came down to two things. Faith and love.

The entire chapter of Hebrews 11 speaks primarily of faith. To be able to face such events one needs to have an abundant amount of faith in Jesus, His words and the resurrection. I believe that faith combined with love produces courage. I think of my children. I would never in my right mind touch a spider; however, if I saw one crawling on my child I would grab it with my own hands and toss it aside. There are various other examples, but the idea is that when love is deep enough we will do anything and that in and of itself is courage. I’m sure David when he went up against Goliath wasn’t thinking… “I need to be courageous right now” while shaking in his sandals. I’m sure he was consumed with indignation that the GOD He loved was being slandered and dishonoured by an uncircumcised Philistine. See his courage steamed from his great love of GOD. We can assume this because his brothers had faith in GOD as well. They knew who He was, and what He could do but they lacked the love. So perhaps that is why David was called a man after GOD’s own heart; because he didn’t just have faith in GOD… He loved GOD.

If we remove courage fueled by genuine faith in the resurrection and love of GOD, then we will become an organisation of good people. People never inconvenienced, never imprisoned for righteous crimes, never persecuted, just good people having a form of godliness but denying its power. On the other hand if we take our faith and our love to another level so will our courage. And we will become a people worthy of longing for.