Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13
As our heart is established, so we will go. What we put into or allow into our mind and heart, those are seeds that are planted, and they will produce a harvest, either a blessing or a curse.
I am reminded of a Staff Sergeant I knew many years ago in the Marine Corps – a humble man, small in stature but big in heart. He was awarded a Navy Cross for bravery and gained promotion in rank to Gunnery Sergeant for his heroic actions during battle. I saw him a few days after the battle and asked, Gunny (a common name used when addressing a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Corps) what happened during that battle that caused you to act in such a heroic way?
I do not have the exact words, I don’t remember them, but I do remember what he said.
“Well Lieutenant,” he began, “there I was in the mud, my face and body pressed into it, trying to survive. They were on the high ground looking down on us, and we had no cover, we were vulnerable and taking casualties. There was one machine gun that was firing at us and kept traversing the rice paddy dike I was trying to hide under. The bullets always stopped just short of where I was pressed into the mud. It seemed impossible that any of us would survive that ambush. I decided I was not going to die face down in the mud cowering behind a rice paddy dike in the face of the enemy. If I was going to die, I was going to die going forward facing and fighting the enemy. I jumped up drew my pistol, yelled follow me and started running toward the enemy.”
Other Marines that were there said it seemed as though when the Staff Sergeant got up yelled and started running toward the enemy, there were so many bullets in the air you could walk on them. Marines who were not in his unit joined him in the assault. They were taken over by the courage of the moment. There were many brave heroes that day that played a part in defeating the enemy. The ambush was broken, and an enemy that had the advantage; the benefit of surprise, the high ground, and the prepared positions were defeated. It was a great victory in courage!
The Bible is full of men and women who stood firm in the faith and faced impossible situations; Abram, Moses, Ruth, David, Mary, Stephen, Paul, and Peter. The Bible is full of such people. What sets them apart is the courageous decisions they made when they set aside their uncertainty, fear, danger and the norms of their times to answer the call that God had on their lives. They had the courage of mind and the will to face danger and extreme difficulty. They believed Gods word was true and that it brought them life and prosperity. These men and women acted out what they believed.
What decisions are you facing today that would challenge your courage?
How would those decisions make a difference in your generation?
PRAYER
Father your words are in my mouth and my heart, they are a blessing to me and my generations, they bring life and prosperity into my life. Increase my faith so that I will have great courage to move into all that you have for me. Amen