Be Courageous and Confident

by Alexandra Copeland

Isn’t it wonderful to know that we serve and worship a God who cannot fail? In the Old Testament, Joshua, the leader of the Israelite tribes after the death of Moses, had grown very old. He said to the Israelites in the book of Joshua 23:14 (NIV), “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.” What a declaration! This is the God that we love and adore. He is our sufficiency. He supplies our every need, and He is our very present help.

When times are sunny and everything seems to be going right, it is very easy to look on the bright side of things. But God wants us to know that we can also be courageous and confident during some of the darkest times in our lives. It is no secret that life can be very challenging on this Christian journey, and it is important for us to know that God is with us and He never forsakes us, regardless of the wrong things that we may have done.

I know a gentleman who is so filled with self-condemnation that he never feels worthy of God’s forgiveness. You see, he has an addiction, and when his addiction is under control he feels great. He feels as though God is on his side and that God will bless him because he is acting and behaving the way he feels he should. Over the course of the last several years, this has been somewhat of a roller coaster. He has vacillated back and forth, remaining in a stable condition no more than a few months before he indulges his habit again.

The impact of his addiction on his life has been difficult, but the greatest damage has been the lack of intimacy that has occurred in his relationship with God. During the really tough times, this man feels unworthy of anything good, and he thinks that God feels this way about him too. For the longest while he has believed that Heavenly Father abandons him when he is in the grips of his addiction, and that this is his punishment. As you might well imagine this wrong belief causes him to fall even further into feelings of abandonment, and there he stays until something in his situation changes.

Many people believe this way. They believe that God’s love and acceptance is dependent upon how good they are. The truth is that we can never make ourselves good enough to deserve all that God has given us. Romans 5:8(NLT) says, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” God’s love gave us victory through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When we were in the worse shape of all, lost in sin with no hope of ever helping ourselves, Christ rescued us. 

Romans 8:31(NLT) says, “So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?” We punish ourselves daily by not accepting God’s unconditional love. This is not to say that this life of infinite possibilities is one without challenges, but we can be courageous through anything because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us through his sacrifice.

Whether we are facing addictions, phobias, or any other remnant of fear, we can be confident that God never abandons us to deal with our pain alone. He helps us. His spirit is on the inside of us, and he has a full view of everything that goes on. The spirit that indwells us knows the depths of our despair, and he knows the degree to which the disappointments and upsets in life have injured our souls. Only God can heal these deep wounds within. You and I cannot do it on our own. We need to accept His deep and abiding love. We also need to do something else that is super important.

We need to invite God to do the work that needs to be done in our souls. The spirit doesn’t come inside us and start shoving out the hate, kicking jealousy to the curb, or causing our fears to vacate the premises. The spirit is our helper. A helper cooperates; he doesn’t shove or push, but lovingly guides us. This is why you can be courageous through any personal predicament, because not only is God helping externally, but He is doing the really important work on the inside of you, as you allow the spirit to be at work.

Before the man I’ve mentioned learned about God’s unconditional love, he always thought that God was angry with him because he often caved when it came to resisting temptation. We can never get to the glorious place in life that God would have us to be by thinking that God punishes us or that He is angry with us. 1John 4:18-19 (NIV) tells us, "18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us." God doesn’t want to hurt us. He is rooting for us to have victory in every aspect of life. Again, He wants to help us to be our best.

Romans 4:16 (NLT) gives us an absolutely jaw-dropping piece of good news. It says, “This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift.” Do you see this?!!! It’s just awesome. It’s not about what we can do for ourselves; it’s about embracing what God does. He’s the supplier of all good things. He’s the Giver, not us. So in order to let the spirit be at work within, we to have depend entirely on trusting God and His way. This means that we can have confidence in what He is doing and will do in our lives.

Fear is the exact opposite of faith. God requires that we have faith in His ability and rest in His care. We can’t do this if we don’t have confidence in His love, and this is exactly what fear is; it’s the absence of confidence in God’s love. Fear tells us “I can’t…I won’t…I don’t have…I can’t get…” It will always tell us “no.” It’s that voice that tries to quell our enthusiasm about life, but we cannot listen to it. God’s voice within is one of optimism and joy. He tells us that we can be released from the things that bind us, and that we can find confidence and courage in Him continually.■

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright ©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.