2Tim 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Sometimes in life we are a few seconds away from a great step of courage. I think about the Apostle Paul on his missionary journey’s, or King David when he was a boy and defeated a giant, or even Peter when he got out of the boat and walked on water. Each of these moments required the courage to take the first step.

One of the courage stopper’s we encounter in life is fear. Fear causes us to tremble and because of it we lose the courage to take the next step. I remember a time as a teenager I was skiing on Mt Hood in Oregon. I was on what was called the upper bowl. It’s was a difficult run that many of my older friends could do,  but the fear of a serious collision kept me from even trying to ski it. While I watched my friends ski down the upper bowl, I would go around and meet them at the bottom. Late into our night, and after much encouragement from my friends, I decided to ski down the upper bowl.

So there I was at the top, staring down what appeared to be a huge cliff. I turned around, backed up about 50 feet, and took off over the edge…

Our life of faith is so like this. Rather than trusting that the Lord has our life in the palm of his hands, we circle the upper bowl to avoid the courage to drop in.

When I look at the stories of Paul, and Peter, and David, I see the blessing that came from their decision to take the few seconds of pure courage. Giant’s get slain, journey’s are made, and you may even walk on water. Even the decision to follow Christ for the first time takes a great step of courage.

Do you have fear keeping you from a few seconds of courage that the Lord is calling you to take? Trust in the Lord and know that when we do he will give you the courage to do far beyond you could ever imagine.