Sheryl Brady - Cultivating Your Courage

So today, let’s go right into the Word of the Lord. I want to talk about cultivating your courage in this year, 2021. I ask, Father, that you would bless your Word. Speak now, Lord; use me for your glory. At the end of the day, we will always give you all of the praise and all of the honor. In Jesus' name, send your Spirit into every home, Lord, to those who have opened their hearts and prepared a table to receive your Word. I pray, God, that you would just speak today. God, this is a very significant day—it’s the first Sunday in the new year. We want to hear from you; we want to be prepared. In Jesus' name, amen. Somebody put in the comments, «I am prepared to hear the Word of the Lord.»

You know, one thing I can tell you that I am sure about is this: there is a lot I’m not sure about, but the one thing I am sure of is that as we face a new year and a new season, we will have to confront this new year and new season with courage. We will have to face it with boldness, with audacity, and with a determination in our spirits. One thing I have rediscovered in 2020 is that life is hard at times; life can be hard. Many of us have experienced going through some tough times in 2020. Life is hard, but God is faithful. Life is hard, but God is faithful; that’s something I can assure you of. Life is not for wimps. Life can be challenging, but God is faithful.

I can tell you another thing: life does not always cooperate with our plans. Many are the plans of a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that will prevail. I was also reminded in 2020 that sometimes things go wrong, that plans will fail, and that prayers are not always answered in the time frame or in the way we expect them to be answered. Often, after a major loss, a major failure, or a year like 2020, many people reach a point in their lives where they feel worn out. Life can wear you out. However, there has to be something in you that assures you that you are alive for a reason, that you have purpose for a reason, and that you won’t simply throw your hands up and quit.

Life has worn some people out, especially in 2020. It has shifted many into not so much a success mode but into a survival mode, leaving them to think, «I’m just going to settle for existing.» However, we need to understand that there are others—I’m sure you’ve noticed this—as there are people who, no matter what life throws at them, possess this incredible ability to get back up again. You look at them and think, «God!» There have been people who have left you for dead, and they never thought they would have to look at you again. But look at God! He put something in you that enables you to get back up time and time again. You rise up and get back into the game. People like that possess an amazing resilience; it is not their strength, but the Christ who is within them.

People like Paul had incredible resilience. He could keep going even when everything in his life suggested he should just stop. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4 that we are pressed on every side, and we face trouble everywhere, but we are not crushed. It says we are not broken. We are perplexed but do not give up, and we do not quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we rise again and keep moving forward. My God! If you think about all the challenges Paul faced, and then he was able to utter such words—where does that kind of courage come from? Where does that resilience originate? Wherever it comes from, I want it. I want it for me, for you, for us—all of us.

On this first Sunday morning in 2021, I want us to look at a man whose life is truly amazing to me. He’s in the Old Testament, and the more I study him, the more intrigued I become. You know him; his name is Job. Job had this ability to cultivate courage, and no matter what came against him, he was able to rise up and keep moving when everything in him should have made him throw in the towel and give up. Job continued to live. As a matter of fact, when his wife said to him, «Why don’t you just curse God and die?» I believe something in Job rose up and probably said, «Why should I?»