How can you be stronger and more courageous in your life? What does the Bible say about being strong and courageous? Get ready to jump in and bring more of this bravery into your life.
During the Temptation of Jesus, the Savior experienced one obstacle after another. From criticism to nagging and false interpretations of God’s word, Jesus faced it all. He knows what it feels like to have everything thrown at him. In the midst of this, He tells His disciples to take courage. Jesus can relate to his trials and he asks us to take courage in the midst of them.
On the A Healing Peace Podcast, we heard from Author and Podcaster Casey Alexis on this very topic. To get you started on the path toward being strong and courageous, here are our top tips.
9 Tips to Be Strong and Courageous
1. Change Your Self-Perspective
See yourself from God’s point of view. Unfortunately, our perspective of our failures, inadequacies, shame, or guilt forces us to think that God looks down at us negatively, pointing that finger, telling us that we are not good enough or that we can do better. Yet that is not the way God sees us. Search the scriptures and you will find God’s word on who you are. Write these scriptures down and meditate on them. Own them and say them out loud. Allow God’s truth to anchor in your heart so that you are walking around knowing who you are from God’s perspective.
2. Look for Help Beyond Yourself
Trying to heal yourself can lead you into a trap of exhaustion and overwhelm. To avoid this pitfall, take some time for self-reflection. Identify the areas in your life where you are exhausted. Once you identify the items, pick one item, and ask the following questions:
- Does this item you are committed to provide an overall benefit to your wellness?
- What are you avoiding? For example, ‘I stopped communicating with others because I do not want them to know…’ Fill in the blank.
- What will happen if I get help in this specific area?
- What does it look like if I give it to God for fixing?
3. Pursue Your Healing
Once you identify the item that is trapping you to give over to God, move into action to be delivered from it. Remember the woman who was bleeding, reaching out in action to receive her healing from Jesus? The next step toward being strong and courageous in your trials is to identify the new action you can take for your healing.
This action could be enlisting friends for help, finding a support group, seeking out a counselor, or stopping distracting or destructive behaviors.
4. Start with S.M.A.R.T. Goals
As you are moving into action mode, establish S.M.A.R.T. goals to keep you on your transformation train. What are S.M.A.R.T. goals? They are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
For instance, you may be enlisting friends for support in your healing journey. Therefore, several specific goals would be: I will schedule one lunch or dinner date with Friend A by Wednesday. I also will connect with Friend B via a 30-minute phone call by Sunday evening. I will express how they can support me in my journey. I will communicate my difficulties and victories. I will ask for advice or support when I am not doing well emotionally. Lastly, I will end our time by praying together. All of these goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
Remember that pushing through your current state requires strength and courage. Hold onto the image of Jesus where He is telling you not to be afraid but to take courage. You can do it!
5. Find Your Victories
As you are unraveling items that are trying to hold you back, spend time identifying the areas in your life where God already brought you victory. In this self-reflection time, review God’s deliverance. Also, identify the length of time it took for the deliverance to occur.
It is important to review God’s timeline as He is always right on time, never before, and never late. However, since we tend to want things right away, we may overlook God’s blessing down the road.
6. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Being strong and courageous means being pushed out of your comfort zone. When God tells us to do something, it often pushes us out of our comfort zone. Additionally, the items God calls us to do, require being done in His strength. We cannot simply just run and attempt to accomplish our designed purpose. His purpose in us requires us to rely on Him and to be strengthened by Him.
Re-visit the things you wanted to do but due to fear or obstacles, you stopped pursuing it. Find those items that push you beyond your comfort zone or require you to combat obstacles. Then present them before God and ask Him to guide you in making your dream a reality.
7. Be Obedient to God
In obedience, there is peace, joy, freedom, prosperity, and love. To grow in strength and courage, spend time reflecting on items in your life where you do not have peace, joy, freedom, prosperity, and love.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Are the items causing me discomfort due to not obeying God’s voice?
- Are there situations occurring because I lack faith in trusting God for His will?
After you identify items causing duress due to not being obedient to God, spend time identifying scriptures that provide promises for being submissive to God’s will. Philippians 2:1-13 is a great passage. It talks about our obedience, our humility, Jesus’ obedience to the death on the cross, and our salvation. In verse 13, the segment climaxes by identifying that God works in us for our will and His pleasure. Therefore, His promise to us is that He is with us working on our behalf, working towards something good, and working to bring Him glory or pleasure by the goodness brought into our lives.
8. Fight For Your Endurance
Our hardships build endurance. When you endure, you know how to tackle the next obstacle in your way. Identify elements in your life where you learned from your obstacles. Jot down your lessons, how they built your character, and how you overcame a subsequent challenge all because you had this experience.
9. Know the Power of Your Words
Eve is the source of all things living. Therefore, we as women represent the source of life to others. With this truth, remember the power of our words. Are you speaking words of life or death?
Go ahead and compliment someone, or let others know what they mean to you. Go ahead and declare God’s praises. Do you praise God enough in your everyday speech? Are you telling Him, thank you? Go ahead, watch your words, and spread that life.
Take one of these tips and start your journey toward being strong and courageous. As you draw nearer to God and respond to his promptings, you will feel Him draw nearer to you.
