Steve Farrar - True Courage: Emboldened by God in a Disheartening World

TRUE COURAGE

Published by David C Cook

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright 2000; 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission; NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved; and KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotation from J. B. Phillipss translation taken from J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, revised editions J. B. Phillips, 1958, 1960, 1972, permission of Macmillan Publishing Co. and Collins Publishers. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

LCCN 2011920249

ISBN 978-1-4347-6873-5

eISBN 978-1-4347-0365-1

2011 Steve Farrar

Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., 10152 S. Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130.

The Team: Don Pape, Larry Libby, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, Karen Athen

Cover Design: Amy Kiechlin

Cover Photo: Getty Images

First Edition 2011

To Lew Spencer,

Race Car Legend

Trusted Friend

Servant of the King

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

You would not be holding this book in your hands without the work of a dedicated and gifted crew. Special thanks to Dan Rich, Don Pape, Larry Libby, and Jack Campbell. These guys work hard and make books happen that point people to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am privileged to be in the foxhole with them.

Introduction

TROUBLED HEARTS AND TRUE COURAGE

We are living in disturbing and draining daysdays that distress our minds and hearts. Daniel would have understood our distress, because he faced exactly the same thing.

Our nation, as with Daniels nation so many centuries ago, seems to be collapsing from within. What is required in these days is True Courage. Daniel 11:32 states that the people who know their God will display strength and take action ( NASB ).

That is True Courage.

In every crisis that Daniel faced, he displayed strength and took actionand it was all due to the fact that he knew God. There is a wrong kind of action that is ultimately fruitlessbut there is a right kind of action that steadies and quiets the heart and gives great hope for the future. Daniel and his friends model this right kind of action in the first six chapters of the book of Daniel. Thats why this book is focused entirely on those six chapters. In the pages that follow, we will learn what True Courage really looks like and how it behaves under pressure.

In a nutshell, Daniel displayed True Courage by:

Fearing God more than man

Trusting God with his future

Realizing Gods governance over all events

True Courage is the result of knowing God. Only then can a man display strength and take action. And he can do so with a heart that is calm, steady, and at resteven in the worst of times. That kind of man knows that even when days look their darkest, God has a good plan.

Daniel was one of the Jews in Babylon who had suffered incredible loss. To Daniel and his friends a message came through loud and clear: There is hope for your future, declares the L ORD ( NASB ).

That laser beam of hope found in Jeremiah 31:17 for Daniel and his friends travels at the speed of light to Gods people today. There is hope for your future. That was true not only in Daniels day; it is also true for us today.

And because it is true, its the basis for your courage.

Discouragement is almost at epidemic levels in these days of economic hardship and political turmoil. Everywhere I look these days I see troubled hearts and troubled minds, sick with worry.

And to those of us who find ourselves with troubled hearts, the Lord Jesus says, Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me (John 14:1 NKJV ).

Those are holy words, sacred words, and not to be used flippantly or taken out of context. The first sentence is not to be separated from the second. If you take the first sentence by itself, you have removed the firing pin.

We are told constantly that we should not be troubled, depressed, or give in to worry. But why shouldnt we give in to worry? Why shouldnt our hearts be troubled? There has to be a reason for our hearts not to be troubled. I have heard a well-meaning radio and television personality often say, Let not your heart be troubled. Yet every time I hear him utter those words, it troubles me. Why? Because he is carelessly quoting only half of the sentence that has the power to calm the seas and troubled hearts. The Lord Jesus had a reason why He told His disciples and us, Let not your heart be troubled. He went on to say, You believe in God; believe also in Me.

Thats the answer right there. Thats the best reason I can think of why our hearts should never be controlled by fear. The truth is, when the events and circumstances swirling around us seem out of control, they are actually under control.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are in complete control of the events taking place in your life, in the life of your nation, and in the life of the entire world. In fact, apart from Him, there would be no life in the universe at this moment.

This is what Paul declared to the Greeks in Acts 17:2425:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Paul then goes even further in verse 28 and states that in him we live and move and have our being.

There is the reason for an untroubled heart. This is the medicine for whatever might be troubling your heart right now. No matter how hopeless our immediate circumstances, no matter how depressing our future may look, we are to believe in God the Father and His Son. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to turn our troubled hearts to focus on and think about the greatness of the Lord Jesus (John 16:14).

True Courage is found in a heart that believes and trusts in the living Godperiod.

Yes, we are certainly living in difficult and frightening times. Our nation continues to mock and abandon the principles of Gods Word. This is also the case in numerous other nations around the world. Our national downward slide toward immorality continues; and as a result, those who look at life through the lens of Scripture are asking three questions:

Will we lose our nation?

Will we lose our liberty?

Will we lose our free enterprise?

These are biblical questionsand the same questions undoubtedly asked in Judah when Daniel was just a little boy. The times were different and the terminology was different, but in essence those three questions were on the hearts of the remnant left in the land. When these three questions are being asked, it is a sign that the hearts of the godly are troubled. It was true twenty-five hundred years ago before Daniel and his nation were taken into captivity, and it is true today.