Courage

In the day of Charles II, Margaret Wilson, a woman of great faith, was falsely accused and sentenced to death. She was tied to the stake on the beach at low tide and offered release for recanting as the tide rose. Her last words – “Christ only is my Master.” She was a woman of great courage.

Our word COURAGE comes from the Latin word meaning resulting from two basics: cor and ago. “Cor” is the word for “heart” and “ago” the word for “to put in motion.” When the heart is put in motion there is courage.

The root word “cour” speaks of the condition of the heart. Richard cour deLion was a reference to King Richard who had the heart of a lion.

The Bible speaks often of the heart. It speaks definitively of each of us. “For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” (Proverbs 23:7)

“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). 

It is the “heart that devises wicked imaginations.”(Proverbs 6:18)

We need to so live as not to be defined as in Matthew 15: 8: “This people draws near unto me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

Such a person lacks courage. They don’t have the courage to reveal their true self. Their heart is in the wrong condition.

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord ponders the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2) 

We need to pray,  “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10) That takes courage. Scripture notes, “you shall love the Lord with all your heart.” Try it and you will see just how much courage it takes.