Courage

Courage: the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc.

The word courage has been on my mind all week. What exactly is it? Do I possess courage? Where does it come from? Dictionary.com breaks it down as the quality of mind or spirit that would enable me to face difficulty etc. But what does quality of mind or spirit break down to? Does that have something to do with my character? If it does then to answer my questions I have to take a step back further or farther (depending on how you use the Queen’s) and ask how my Character is and has been shaped.

I’d like to think that when I consider my character I can understand the factors that have helped form it, but also understand how it might be growing and hopefully maturing just now. That is to say that our character is never ‘formed’ but is always ‘forming’. This is encouraging, primarily because it means no matter how grubby we may or may not be, we have the hope that we can become something extraordinary.

Culture in the words of Bruno Mars tells her that there is not a thing that he would change because she is amazing just the way she is! I would argue that for Bruno he might very well be convinced of that, but (and i dont want to be labelled as the destroyer of romanticism here) I would say we can always change positively and become even better than we are. I don’t think we can do it by ourselves though, well we maybe can, but the gains or yield won’t be anywhere near as good as they will be if we involve the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 3 that God ‘is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us’, that work is through His Spirit and it can be constant and progressive. What is important for us to grasp is that his power will progresses in parallel with our character only if we allow it to do so. Indeed it has the capabilities of doing immeasurably more.

I would like my courage to be based on the immeasurable power of God rather than any power of my own. Therefore I will be enabled to face anything that is put before me. I pray that God will work within me to nurture and mature my courage and character how he wants not how I think is best.