Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.
There’s an old adage, “Have the heart of a lion!” Hearing it, we think, “courage”. This recalls a quote I once heard; “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened”. I doubt there’s a single hero story in which the fearless leader fails to inspire the righteous determination of his army or people. The voice of the captain resounds through the ranks evoking the fierce cry of every warrior ready to face death or worse, for the cause. Courage truly is contagious.
Of course, so is fear. And no matter how great or small our sphere, we are all, each and every one of us, people of influence. If, individually, I stand and face every fear with the boldness of a lion, I cannot fail to embolden others to stand courageously with me.
But true courage will depend on righteousness, and those who are righteous live by faith; and faith comes by hearing, and hearing, through the word of Christ, that is, Divine revelation. So, real lion-like courage will come direct, by faith, from the Lion of Judah, Yeshua our Lord.
Live by faith, be righteous in Messiah, and you may be the lion that leads, inspiring a pack that follows! Courage is infectious… spread it far and wide!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When Yeshua (Jesus) went into the synagogue in Nazareth and was handed the scroll of Isaiah to read [Luke 4:18], He opened it to the passage we know of as Isaiah 61, a powerful Messianic proclamation filled with hope and promise and fresh with the joyful good news of His arrival. After reading the passage He immediately declared that it was fulfilled in the hearing of those present. The first response was amazement and wonder that the carpenter’s son was so gracious a communicator. But this did not last, as Yeshua immediately challenged his audience with a prophetic expectation…that they would reject Him, which they immediately did…nevertheless…
F.B. Meyer once said, “The education of our faith is incomplete [till] we learn that God’s providence works through loss…that there’s a ministry to us through the failure and fading of things. The dwindling brook where Elijah sat is a picture of our lives.
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One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on in every person. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’. One is evil — it is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good…
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