Easy to Be Brave

“Blessed are you who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored.” Psalm 128:1-2

I heard a story of a young man who attended boot camp. The training officer put him and the others in the camp through rigorous training, showing them how to use the guns and ammunition. The officer showed them a grenade, and explained, “The one problem with using these is their unpredictability, but the biggest problem is if a soldier doesn’t throw the grenade at just the right time, because of the time delay, the enemy may pick it up and throw it back before it explodes.”  Then he took out the pin and “accidentally” dropped it to the ground. He shouted, “Run! It’s going to explode!” Then laughed when everybody scampered. “Get back here, you cowards,” he barked. 

When the trainees were heading for lunch, a bus arrived, and the young man recognized a friend from high school. In just a few minutes he told his friend that if he got so and so as a training officer, this is what he’ll do with a grenade. Sure enough his friend underwent the same training with the same officer. When the officer dropped the grenade, the friend got down and covered the grenade with his body. He was the only one who got an award for courage in boot camp! And neither he nor his friend told them why!

It’s easy to be brave if we know there is no danger. We may undergo all sorts of trials, suffering and tribulations, but if we know the Lord is with us, that He will never forsake us, and all our experiences are because God is transforming us into better people, we will not be moved. We will not be shaken by circumstances that seem hopeless. We will stand on His Word that, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). We need to be steadfast because like the grenade, the enemy can use our trials to destroy us, to make us feel weak, hopeless and desperate. We need to use our weapons of prayer, and reading the Word to protect us from the evil one who wants to destroy us. 

It is good to read the whole of Ephesians 6:10-18, to be reminded to “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”