Pastor's Weekly Musing

Hey everyone!

When I was in jr. high, I would walk to my dad's church office every day after school. It was about a 15-20 minute walk, so my dad knew when I should be arriving every day.

I had a usual group of buddies that I walked with, and one of them started going to our church. This kid had a good heart, but he'd often get sucked into doing regrettable things whenever he was around the wrong crowd.

On several of our walks home after school, some friends from our group would have ideas to go do some shady things, and my new church friend would always struggle with the temptation to join them, and often would. Then, he'd feel terrible and try really hard the next few days to not do it again, only to get sucked in again.

One day, when we were alone, he asked me, "Ronnie, you never go with those guys! Even when they make fun of you for not going. You always say no. How do you do it? How are you so strong?"

I remember looking at him incredulously and saying, "I'm not saying no because I'm strong. I'm saying no because my dad will kill me if I don't show up to his office on time!"

It was the God honest truth. What looked like strength and courage was really a healthy fear of my dad! Those opportunities that seemed to tempt my buddy so much just didn't have the same effect on me.

As silly as this story is, it shows us a bit about what Christian courage is like:

Courage is a byproduct of a fear of the Lord.

I don't think courage has to be innately part of a person's character and personality in order to work in their lives. Someone can BE courageous, as long as their reverence and honor and respect and healthy fear are properly placed in the Lord.

Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

This means I place such high value on what God says and thinks that what others might say just doesn't seem to be that appealing. I'm not that afraid of them, because what God says is more important. Just like me saying "no" to some friends as a teenager.

Let's put our highest value on what God says and thinks, and watch how much we grow in courage!