{"id":1695,"date":"2011-12-09T14:04:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T12:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/?p=1695"},"modified":"2011-12-21T01:28:48","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T23:28:48","slug":"courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Control of Fear: Courageous Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.g42leadershipacademy.org\">G42 Leadership Academy<\/a>, we talk about our missional &#8220;forefathers&#8221; who have overcome in the face of <em>real<\/em> adversity.  Gladys Alward, Brother Yun, Nate Saint, George Mueller&#8230; for some reason, many of us have lost the courage to do difficult things these days.  Every time fear raises up, or obstacles come, we decide it&#8217;s not God&#8217;s will and we change direction.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>A new generation of Christians must have COURAGE<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather having fear and overcoming it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/lion_courage_sm.jpg\" alt=\"Courage - The lion from Wizard of Oz\" title=\"lion_courage_sm\" width=\"590\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1696\" srcset=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/lion_courage_sm.jpg 590w, http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/lion_courage_sm-300x152.jpg 300w, http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/lion_courage_sm-127x65.jpg 127w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>It&#8217;s Not As Bad As You Think It Is<\/h2>\n<p>Fear is &#8220;the <em>irrational belief<\/em> that something is harmful to you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fear is &#8220;an unpleasant emotion caused by the <em>belief<\/em> that someone or something is dangerous, <em>likely to<\/em> cause pain, or a threat&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fear is &#8220;a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real <em>or imagined<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Get the idea?  Fear is in our minds.  Yes, there are natural instincts that keep us from plummeting to our death&#8230;. but most of the time, we fear things that won&#8217;t actually harm us.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spiders.<\/li>\n<li>Public speaking.<\/li>\n<li>Clowns.  <em>&#8211;Okay, I&#8217;ll give you clowns. But I digress&#8230;<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We need to recognize fear for what it is: a lie.  It is an idea, a thought, that is keeping us from growing, from advancing, and from succeeding.<\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite books growing up was Frank Herbert&#8217;s Dune.  In it, there is a &#8220;litany&#8221; against fear:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I must not fear.<br \/>\nFear is the mind-killer.<br \/>\nFear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.<br \/>\nI will face my fear.<br \/>\nI will permit it to pass over me and through me&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you are facing fear in your life, you must realize what it is doing to you: it is stopping you from doing bigger and greater things (whether that is for your family, your business, or for your church!)<\/p>\n<h2>It&#8217;s Worse Than You Think It Is<\/h2>\n<p>But hey, the world is a dangerous place, right?  There are natural disasters everywhere you look.  There are wars, shootouts, rapes, and muggings.  People die.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, people die.  <\/p>\n<p>And so will you.<\/p>\n<p>Without being morbid or cliche, you are going to die.  It&#8217;s a fact.  Will you die living life to the fullest, or hiding from reality in your safe livingroom?  Will die doing something you love, or trudging through life beaten down and depressed?<\/p>\n<p>We have brilliant examples of how to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds: Gladys Alward, who was deemed too old and not smart enough, went anyway to China, nearly freezing to death on the way.  Brother Yun was beated, imprisoned, and tortured&#8230; and still went on to share the Gospel in prison and in Chinese house churches.  <strong>Study these histories and take courage from them.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>So What Then?<\/h2>\n<p>As a new generation of Christian, we must decide if we believe what we say we believe:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For I know the plans I have for you,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jer 29:11<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p> Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. Josh 1:9 <em>(and all of Joshua chapter 1)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>If we do believe this, then: <\/h3>\n<p><strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use your voice to defend your beliefs, your family, and your calling.<\/li>\n<li>Take a step of faith to start something new, fun, challenging, and scary.<\/li>\n<li>Decide to be decisive. Make the call.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t let unspoken apologies or unforgiveness ruin a relationship.<\/li>\n<li>Lead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Check out the next in this series on &#8216;A New Generation of Christian&#8217;: <a href=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/secure\/\" title=\"A New Generation of Christian: Secure\">Secure or Insecure?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the G42 Leadership Academy, we talk about our missional &#8220;forefathers&#8221; who have overcome in the face of real adversity. Gladys Alward, Brother Yun, Nate Saint, George Mueller&#8230; for some reason, many of us have lost the courage to do difficult things these days. Every time fear raises up, or obstacles come, we decide it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,42],"tags":[292,290,288,289,51,293,287,291],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1695"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1713,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions\/1713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}