The Maintenance Of Courage

July 4, 2011

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.

When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message*

God cares for you infinitely more than you realize. Even if you have become melancholy to the point where you are numb, there is still fight on your insides that God put in you! The way you offset discouragement is to get your eyes on Jesus and receive encouragement and strength from what the Word declares—that will “shoot adrenaline into your soul.” Mind-renewal is not automatic. We have to deliberately feed our faith and starve our doubts.

The sower sows the word . . . the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Mark 4:14, 18-20

It’s absolutely imperative that you fend off the worries and cares and hold up your shield long enough to realize the full potential on your life. So, instead of breakdown, you will have breakthrough! As you root out the cares of this world and let the Word take hold in your heart and germinate, you’ll reap the fruit of effectiveness—thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. God is able to keep you from stumbling and make you stand! (Jude 24).

You can trust Him!
Pastor Jeff

Copyright © 2011 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. *Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.