It takes COURAGE

What do you do when you are faced with a challenge, an obstacle that could seem to be insurmountable, or a fear?
Do you run from it?
Do you think to yourself, "I can do this"?
Do you realize you can't do it alone?
Do you have the courage to face the task?

Courage is defined in the dictionary as:
   the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty,danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

We cannot remember for ourselves, but we see courage in babies that are beginning to walk; they get up repeatedly after they fall down. Their memory recall doesn't make them fearful.

It take courage to jump off the high diving board for the first time.
It takes courage to learn how to ride a bike.
It takes courage to go to bat in a baseball game.

It takes courage for a mother to drop her child off at pre-school or kindergarten, or middle school and high school.
It takes even more courage to drop your daughter or son of at college; realizing they may turn their backs on your values.

While in college:
It takes courage not to drink to excess. It is much easier to go along with the crowd and get drunk.
It takes alot of courage not to be talked into having sex when you are not ready.
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to report that you have been raped or violated.
It takes courage not to cheat on an exam and settle for the grade you make because you have studied; especially when the exam is out there for you to see beforehand.
It takes courage to write your own papers, not copying someone else's or plagerising.
It takes courage to tell others that you are a follower of Jesus.

During your working days:
It takes courage not to waste your time at work; looking at the internet, your Instagram, Facebook or Twitter feeds.
It takes courage to be honest.
It takes courage not to take credit for something someone else did.
It takes courage to own up to your mistakes.
It takes courage to keep going when you have been denied a promotion or been laid off. It takes courage to go home and tell your family.

What about being courageous in everyday life?
It takes courage not to gossip; to quit talking about someone behind their back and to walk away when others do.
It takes courage to come out and admit you are gay.
It takes courage to admit your mistakes.
It takes courage to tell your children you were wrong and to apologize to them.
It takes tremendous courage to forgive your spouse who has cheated on you.
It takes even more courage to persevere when your marriage has ended.
It takes courage sometimes just to get out of bed; whether it be from depression that is non-stop and relentless or whether it is just too much effort after an illness, or surgery.
It takes courage to fight cancer. It takes enormous amounts of courage to undergo chemotherapy and radiation; especially when you are not guaranteed of a great outcome.

Probably for most of us the most amount of courage we need is to face life without a loved one. When someone we cherish so dearly is taken from us, we often can't even imagine how to go on. The days are endless in grief.
It takes courage to just keep living.

It took more courage than you or I can ever comprehend to know as Jesus did, what He was about to face. When He sweated so profusely that blood oozed from his pores, knowing that He would be beaten, spat upon and scourged thirty-nine times with a cat of nine tails.
It took courage for Jesus to tell His Father that He would prefer not to do it this way, but in the end, would do what His Father wanted.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22%3A42-43&version=NIV

 Only to be followed by being nailed to a cross and suffocating to death. That kind of courage is incomprehensible to me. Yet Jesus mustered all the courage of His human self to suffer and be crucified-all because He loved us. He wanted us to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Courage is a hard thing. We wish it would be easy but if it was, it wouldn't require much effort. We would give up way too easily.
Next time you are in a situation that requires courage and your fears are getting the best of you, consider asking Jesus for help. 
HE KNOWS ALL ABOUT COURAGE.