This week, Pastor Luke finished up our Wait on God series with 'Wait on God; In Power'.
He spoke about courage, and it being not the absence of fear, but action in spite of fear. Courage is rooted in our ability to overcome and press through, and the whole life and ministry of Jesus and His disciples was an example of this kind of faith-filled courage.
They possessed this kind of bold courage through three things:
They understood Gods presence
They lived out God’s power by faith
They knew how to pray and persevere
The promise of Scripture for the people of God is the presence of God, as He promises He will be with us at the end, and with us to the end. We need this presence because what God calls us to do is impossible in and of ourselves. He calls us to make disciples of all nations, which is impossible without Him and always requires us to take a step of faith.
Our Christian walk is always demonstrated by works done in faith. We need to foster and practice this faith regularly and intentionally by doing difficult things and embracing the discomfort that it brings. We need to meet and share with our neighbors, pray for the sick and regularly share the Gospel as true courage is planted when we give our lives away through our time, money and love for others.
We need to do these things from a place of prayer, as our lives are only as powerful as our prayers. It is in prayer, through prayer and by prayer that we get the perspective and perseverance to keep pushing forward. In order to see our society change, we need to burn for the things that Gods heart burns for, and we need to step out in faith and courageous action toward those things. When the Gospel takes root in our heart, we can’t help but be changed and change the world in faith and courageous action.
