Being Comfortable and Resolute in “Who I Am”

“Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.”

–1 Corinthians 16:13 (NLT).

There are not many references in the Bible for courage as it relates to simply being ourselves; that is not to say it’s not covered or it’s not a biblical concept, for I believe it is—it’s just not front of mind right now.

I had a vision from God just recently (and the message behind it is an old one) where he said through the situation before me, that I must back myself and trust in no comparison except by Christ.

Unstinting courage is required beyond our initial awareness to ensure that if God directs us to do his will—considering we’re discerning his voice in the first place—we do it without delay or compromise.

It is easy to be swayed in life away from that which doesn’t reach our conscious awareness or away from our convictions—we do lack courage at times.

The point is, however, we must allow the Spirit to train us in 1) expanding our awareness; and 2) building our courage to deal with differing situations appropriately and effectively.

Being comfortable and resolute in ‘who I am,’ really is a statement of being comfortable and resolute in who God has made me (us) to be, and what he is making me (us) to become. We can’t always see what God’s doing in our futures, but we know in faith that he is at work there as well as he is in the present.

When we have the Spirit’s power to willingly and consistently place God and others first, we then have an obligation, I believe, to back ourselves courageously—even, especially even, in going against the flow of our own weak wills and cowardice at times. In this we might even rock the occasional boat.

We can only be effective in backing ourselves if we have first a firm foundation of ‘who we are,’ both in Christ and within ourselves. These two are not necessarily one and the same thing.

Being ‘who we are,’ however, is a journey without destination—besides glory.

© S. J. Wickham, 2009.