Courage
There is something in front of you today that you would rather not face. A conversation, a diagnosis, a decision, a first day, standing up for someone when it would be easier to stay quiet. Courage in the Bible is never the absence of fear — every person told to be brave was frightened for good reason. It is doing the next right thing anyway, with the promise of company. Read one of these before you go.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).
Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go.Joshua 1:9
Courage is commanded and then immediately resourced with a promise.
Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them; for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.Deuteronomy 31:6
Goes with you — not sends you.
Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.Psalm 27:14
Sometimes courage is required simply to keep waiting well.
For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.2 Timothy 1:7
Written to a young man who by all accounts was naturally timid.
Watch. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Courage and love in the same breath, because brave without kind is just hard.
Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do it. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed; for Yahweh God, even my God, is with you. He will not fail you, nor forsake you.”1 Chronicles 28:20
And do it. Courage is eventually a matter of starting.
Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?Psalm 27:1
Two questions that shrink most threats down to their real size.
David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies.”1 Samuel 17:45
He did not deny the weapons. He named a bigger factor.
Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?Esther 4:14
Said to a woman deciding whether to risk everything by speaking up.
Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?” … Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you.”Judges 6:14, 16
Gideon was hiding in a winepress when he was greeted as a mighty man of valour.
I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.John 16:33
Trouble is guaranteed in the same sentence as the encouragement. That is honest.
If God is for us, who can be against us?Romans 8:31
A question worth asking out loud on the way into the room.
The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.Proverbs 28:1
A clear conscience is one of the great sources of nerve.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.Acts 4:13
Their courage was traceable to company, not to qualifications.
For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, “Don’t be afraid. I will help you.”Isaiah 41:13
Held by the hand, the way you would lead a frightened child across a road.
Every person in the Bible told to be courageous was in genuine trouble. Joshua was replacing Moses and facing fortified cities. Esther was considering an approach to a king that could cost her life. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide from raiders when an angel greeted him as a mighty man of valour. The command is never issued to people who have nothing to lose.
And it is almost never issued alone. Be strong and courageous is followed, nearly every time, by a reason: for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go. Biblical courage is not self-generated bravado. It is the practical consequence of believing you are accompanied. That is why Acts 4 is such a striking verse — the observers could not account for the boldness of two ordinary men except by noting that they had been with Jesus.
Courage also turns out to be quieter than we expect. Sometimes it is a lion-like boldness, but more often it is standing firm, waiting well, doing the next right thing, telling the truth in a room that does not want to hear it. Esther’s courage was a decision made in private before it was a risk taken in public. Whatever is in front of you today, you do not need to feel brave. You need to take one step, and you are not taking it alone.
Joshua 1:9 is the one most people memorise: “Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go.” 2 Timothy 1:7 is the shortest useful one — God gave a spirit of power, love and self-control, not of fear. Psalm 27:1 is good to say on the way into something difficult.
Biblically, courage and fear coexist. Every figure commanded to be brave had real reason to be frightened. The pattern is to name the fear, remember who is with you, and then act — “be strong and courageous, and do it”, as David told Solomon. Take the next single step rather than the whole task, and tell someone you are doing it so you are not alone in it.
Esther risked her life to approach the king for her people. David faced Goliath with a sling. Daniel kept praying with the windows open when it was illegal. Ruth left everything to stay with Naomi. Gideon started out hiding in a winepress. The consistent thread is that none of them were fearless — they were accompanied, and they moved anyway.
Feelings rarely arrive one at a time. These pages sit close to this one.
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