Chains of Courage

Christians sometimes wonder if they have “enough courage”. Courage comes through our daily obedience to Christ, regardless of circumstances. It takes obedience to teach Sunday school children, just as it takes obedience to stand before a hostile judge with a gun in your back. We have courage not because of who we are, but because of Whom we serve.

Tribal Christians in Communist Vietnam are told they must sign a paper promising not to worship together again, and by signing they will “protect” their family. One Vietnamese brother was trembling as he told this story about his house church that had been attacked that evening by the police, but he was smiling. A Vietnamese pastor told us “we have learned that suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Disobedience to God is the worst things.” Their modern-day witness encourages us not to sign up with the world, no matter how or where we are tested.

It’s important that we obediently continue to hold our light on the hill (Mat 5:14). As we maintain our gracious Christian witness, we are links in God’s several thousand-year chain of courage. You may be maintaining your witness in a difficult family or working as a single parent, juggling both job and children. But, we are all presented with moments of heroism in our life, which require faith, obedience and courage.

Thousands of angels clap for us when we stand up for Christ, the same way they clap for a Muslim convert who refuses to go back to Islam and is beaten by their family. Together with our brothers and sisters, we produce a chain reaction of joy, even in heaven.

The courage to be a witness for Christ stems from obedience rooted in love not from feelings. The Lamb of God on the way to be sacrificed was in pain, yet He obeyed the will of His Father and purchased our salvation. He tells us to obediently take up our cross, knowing we will also pass through painful moments. God’s chain cannot be broken.

Source: Voice of the Martyrs Magazine