Righteousness Brings Courage
What does it mean to be Righteous? To be Righteous means to be free from sin or guilt. It also means to be right standing with God. We are in right standing with God through our Faith in Jesus Christ, who makes us righteous before a holy God. Because of the standing we have before God, we don’t have anything to fear in this life, not even death itself, because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. This makes us more than conquerors, more than unbelievers, because in this life and even in our death as Christians we have victory and the hope of heaven (Romans 8:31-39). It is for this reason that our right standing in holiness with God gives us courage to face and overcome every fear that comes our way. The Bible says in (Proverbs 28:1)”………but the righteous are bold as a lion”.
What is courage? According to dictionary, Courage can be defined as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or hardship. Courage is derived from the Latin word “cor”, which means “heart.” Another way of putting it is that courage is a strong heart.
Courage is the determination to push past our fears and get out of our own way in order to become the “who” God intended us to be. Fear may make us shrink, while courage causes us to flourish. Courage is the marble-solid pillar of our spirit and the titanium basis of our character.
I’m not talking about the kind of courage that the world admires, courage earned through experiences or knowledge, or perhaps resiliency that we admire from afar, resiliency that we hope we’ll never need.
This is a new kind of courage, one that comes from the outside but transforms you from the inside out. This courage frees you from fear’s grip and provides you with the energy, strength, and heart you need to tackle anything life throws at you.
This kind of bravery comes from being righteous and placing our complete trust in an amazing God, not from being extraordinary in ourselves.
Whatever you are facing today, God has something to offer you. True bravery and strength will come from His love, not from your own ability or goodness.
This starts with developing the courage to face the hardships of everyday life. Courage is like a muscle; the more we use it, the stronger it gets. When we take bold actions, our confidence, faith, and courage all grow. And when we are brave enough to face today’s modest obstacles, we will be bold enough to face tomorrow’s enormous opportunities. Let’s take a look at what this new kind of courage in righteousness entails.
God takes obedience very seriously. Something happens to us when we spend more time believing in God’s kind of love. We desire more freedom as we taste it, freedom from our worries, freedom from ourselves, freedom from the ways we feel knotted up and bound, freedom from our own incessant voice telling us how we must live. We desire to be transformed. We desire to live the life that Jesus has to give. We abandon the concept of paying back a debt and instead join a love connection in which we desire to please the one who loves us.
We begin to grow as we take daring steps behind Jesus and follow him every day. We can’t avoid being changed. God isn’t on a power trip. He isn’t attempting to persuade you to do things so that he may demonstrate that he is correct and you are incorrect. He isn’t attempting to persuade you to comply so that you can feel better about yourself, so that you can live a fulfilling life that is free of fear, worry and anxiety. He’s not a control freak in the least. He exemplifies both freedom and protection. He allows you to live your life as you like, but when you recognize that living according to your sinful nature is enslaving, he comes to your rescue.
This is where we can become perplexed as to what actual freedom entails. Jesus doesn’t set us free to be permissive; he sets us free to live a life that makes sense. There are no condemnations in his Kingdom, but there are mandates, there are commands that you must follow. We want to know how God wants us to live when we realize how exhausting life can be when we try to live it for ourselves and in our own way.
Perhaps Jesus was referring to this when he stated in (John14:15).”If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”. “If you’ve recognized your approach isn’t working, you’ll come do it my way,” is another way of putting it. It would be unloving of Jesus to set us free from our old ways without also giving us a new way of life, and this new way of life brings the courage that we need.
This is precisely what Jesus accomplishes. He doesn’t merely make a deal with us, he gives his life in exchange for our freedom. He’s a relational person, not a transactional one. “I have set you free,” he says. “Now come be with me, learn from me.”
There’s something broken about us, something that doesn’t feel quite right. I believe that the not right in each of us is the world’s expression of sin. We live in a world where everything is damaged, including ourselves. So when we say grace is good news, we really mean the finest news, because grace makes us righteous.
Being righteous entails being unbroken. It means that the basic aspects of our soul that aren’t functioning properly can be restored. It implies that there will be no sin in the future, only love. All that is broken within us will be fixed once and for all in our lives. It implies that there will be no sin in our lives, only love. Our inheritance is that magnificent future, eternal life with God.
True grace, however, provides repair and rejuvenation within our souls on this side of heaven in addition to our existence after death. It means we can give up attempting to mend our broken hearts and instead throw ourselves into the arms of our heavenly Father, who tells us to come boldly to his seat of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Remember Jesus’ words. “Be born again.” Consider yourself a child. Welcome to the Kingdom.
When we receive grace, the Bible states we “rule in life” (Romans 5:17). The strength and courage to overcome our fears comes from the power of one man, Jesus Christ. Because our victory and power become linked with Christ’s victory and power, we are able to “rule” over every condition. We no longer look to ourselves for solutions; instead, we turn to Christ. We bring every part of ourselves under his command one small action at a time, idea after thought.
Taking courageous action is the only way to overcome any fear. We say someone has courage when they act bravely. Is courage, though, something they “have”? Courage isn’t this enigmatic, either-or attribute that some individuals have and others don’t. People use the word “courage” to describe the actions they take to face and overcome their fears. Courage entails taking action.
Courage allows you to push past your fears and emerge on the other side. If you believe you are being followed in a risky area, stop and look the follower in the eyes.
Courage allows you to feel the fear and overcome it. Fear and action are linked by courage. One of our greatest gifts, imagination has is a double edge, as to do all great gifts. We can fantasize about fantastic possibilities and be inspired by them. We can also imagine dreadful possibilities and be terrified. Courage allows us to see magnificent futures while also dealing with dreadful ones.
The Apostle Paul speaking in the book of Ephesians 6:14, goes on to say that we should put on the breastplate of Righteousness. Breastplate can be likened to a protector of the chest. The breastplate is very important for army during Apostle Paul’s days, because the breastplate protect the vital area of the chest, which happens to be the heart. Courage is matter of the heart as explained earlier, while fear is also a matter of the heart. When righteousness is in place, courage or a strong heart is the result, but when righteousness is out, fear, worry and anxiety are the result.
The word “Righteousness” comes from the Greek word “dikaiosunē”, which refers to “standing right or being in a condition accepted by God”. The concept of Righteousness, it presupposes right position in relation to God and a right life in terms of purity and moral correctness. If we have received the righteousness of Christ as our breastplate, then we are in a position of trust that allows us to stand courageous against the fear.
Confront Your Fears
“If you are facing a new challenge or being asked to do something that you have never done before don’t be afraid to step out. You have more capability than you think you do but you will never see it unless you place a demand on yourself for more.”
—Joyce Meyer
The thoughts and feelings of fear, worry and anxiety are unpleasant, intense, overwhelming, and sometimes terrifying. They aren’t, however, the true adversary. The actual foe is strict fear and anxiety avoidance.
Excessive avoidance is the most toxic ingredient responsible for developing worries, anxieties, and fears into potentially life-threatening illnesses and psychiatric diseases, according to study.
Toxic avoidance can take various forms, including avoiding people, places, activities, and situations that may trigger anxious or frightening sensations, utilizing substances to reduce the incidence of such feelings, and fleeing situations where you feel uncomfortable.
A life lived in the service of avoiding anxiety and fear can be rather restrictive, and it may have come to define your way of existence. For the time being, the most important thing to remember is that avoidance, especially when done rigidly and inflexibly, gets in the way of what you want to do and where you want to go. It’s impossible to live a full life while avoiding fear and other emotional and psychological suffering.
We respect our freedom and have struggled for it for many years, the freedom to not be enslaved by others, the freedom to live our lives as we choose, the freedom to travel, meet who we want, and enjoy life. Slavery is the polar antithesis of freedom, in which we are forced to obey others for no reason other than that they are stronger than us. Other people, we believe, are the adversaries of freedom, forcing us to do things we don’t want to do. What about internal coercions, though?
What about the worries that enslave us, the fears that limit our freedom? Because they are a part of us, it is difficult to find the enemy, but they can constrain us more than an external enemy. This section will assist you in dealing with the freedom foes that have established themselves within you.
Every fear has a positive motive, which means it is motivated by something we value. Underneath our fear, there is always a worth, status, self-respect, honesty, reputation, safety, and independence are all examples of worth. We are terrified when we are on the verge of losing something. We can’t lose something we don’t have, therefore it needs to be something we already have and that is valuable to us.
This part will look at how you might address and overcome your concerns by applying these values.
Ways of dealing with your fears.
– Changing your emotional state: changing your emotional states needs curiosity. Curiosity is a tremendously powerful resource. You may become intrigued about your fear. This helps in two ways as you become more engaged in your emotional condition. To begin with, the emotion of curiosity begins to take the place of the emotion of fear. Second, being conscious of an emotion aids in its dissipation. When you’re curious, instead of seeing your fear as something you are, you might see it as something separate from you. You can overcome your fear when you are curious about it.
– Distraction: In NLP jargon, this is referred to as a “Break state”. A break state is something that takes your focus away from the emotion you’re experiencing. You can’t break state on oneself (how do you surprise yourself? ), but you can get someone to chat to you or tell you a joke.
There are three possible ways to break state:
1. Visually, by observing something intriguing or unexpected.
2. Auditory, as in hearing a loud noise or music.
3. By a touch, kinesthetic.
When someone is scared, you can utilize break states on them.
– Self-talk: You have the ability to reason with yourself. Tell yourself that being afraid makes no sense. Use a reassuring tone of voice when speaking. Internal dialogue in the Stephen King style can terrify you even more. To begin, speak in a calm, soothing tone. Second, make use of affirmative statements. When you tell yourself, “Don’t be afraid,” you’re concentrating on being afraid. “I can feel tranquil” or “Feel calm!” is preferable (in a calming voice tone, of course). Make sure your voice tone matches the emotion you’re trying to convey. It can often be enough to simply repeat “Calm” or “Relax” in a soothing voice tone. This operates as a hypnotic chant, which you can utilize as a resource anchor if it works.
– Values: Values have a strong anti-fear effect. When other people, especially those you care about, are in distress, you temporarily forget your fear and rush to their aid. Looking back on what you did later, you might not believe what you did. Second, there is a feeling of accomplishment. Climbers and explorers, for example, may overcome their anxiety because they want to know the answer, they want to attain their goal because it is essential to them. Finally, you may begin to ponder if you are the type of person who is afraid and values their absence of dread. The subject of value will be discussed more in the next section.
– Mental Strategy: Attentional Thought Control (ATC) or Attentional Control is vital while adopting mental strategy. Attentional control refers to a person’s ability to choose what they pay attention to and what they ignore. For example, if you pay attention to images and sounds on the outside, you will have less attention to give to images and sounds on the inside. They have power because you are paying attention to them. What you choose to pay attention to have a lot to do with confronting and overcoming fear.
Why Values in the Face of Fear?
Defining your beliefs and guiding principles for your life is one of the simplest methods to deal with fear and live a more satisfying existence. We need these concepts now more than ever to help us figure out how we want to spend our time, energy, and money.
What is the significance of this?
It’s crucial because your values may act as a yardstick for all of your life’s choices and actions, ensuring that you stay focused on the person you were born to be and the life you want to live. You create the optimum atmosphere for happiness, inner calm, and clear thinking by living in accordance with your principles.
Values serve as a foundation for your life that can withstand the test of time, as well as life’s challenges, fears, and major changes. Embracing your principles is similar to being a tree with deep and sturdy roots that will not be uprooted by life’s storms. When you know what you stand for, it’s easier to avoid uncertainty, over-thinking, stress, and anxiety.
For example: A lady’s main value in her professional life is freedom and flexibility. She didn’t want to pursue a regular 9-to-5 work after she identified this objective since she knew she wouldn’t be happy. Because she was clear on her principles, it was easy for her to say “No, thank you” even when fantastic work possibilities came her way.
Steve Pavlina, a personal development blogger and author, explains the significance of core values this way: “Values serve as a compass to keep us on track every day, ensuring that we continue to move in the direction that brings us closer to our notion of the “greatest” life we can possibly live”.
The “best” is your personal ideal, but even if you never reach “best,” you’ll generally enjoy increasingly favorable shades of “better” as you grow closer to it. This makes sense because many life outcomes are on a continuum.
Living in conflict with your ideals or outgrowing your current values might throw you off track and make you feel anxious and depressed. Your life may feel imbalanced or directionless if you haven’t identified your values, and you may be unsure why.
What are the spiritual values that you hold dear? What are the values that you hold dear in your marriage? What are the values that you hold as a professional? What are the values that you hold dear in your profession? What are the personal values that you hold dear? What are your societal values, among other things? You can deal with your fear more effectively if you have a well-defined value.
Be Positive
I’d like to begin this section with a quote from Henry Ford. “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you are correct!”
In addition, the Bible says in (Proverbs 23:7). “For he is, as he thinketh in his heart……”
Our cognitive processes are required for survival and competitiveness in the modern environment. We can solve difficulties more quickly and effectively when we use critical thinking. We can produce original, diversified, and elaborate thoughts and connections by using creative thinking. Uninvited negative thinking, on the other hand, fill our minds and often saps our passion for life.
Australian psychologist Dr. Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap, writes, “Thus, evolution has shaped our brains so that we are hardwired to suffer psychologically, to compare, evaluate, and criticize ourselves, to focus on what we’re lacking, to quickly become dissatisfied with what we have, and to imagine all sorts of terrifying scenarios, most of which will never happen, how to Stop Struggling and Start Living. It’s no surprise that humans have a hard time being happy!”
Many people are victimized by their bad ideas throughout their life. They believe they have no control over what thoughts enter their minds, and even worse, they trust the “voices” in their heads that warn them that the sky is falling.
While the negativity bias exists, it is not impenetrable to your efforts to change and become more self-aware. Allowing your mind to wander into worry and sorrow may feel normal, but by not confronting it and accepting your thoughts as your identity, you’ve encouraged negative thinking. However, you have the ability to detect this inclination and modify it by developing the reframing habit, which is the first step in recognizing and interrupting your thought patterns before they spiral out of control.
Here are six techniques to help you escape the cycle of negativity and start controlling your mind with positive thinking.
Each of these tactics just takes a few minutes to implement.
The first strategy is to Act as a Watcher.
Begin by becoming conscious of your thoughts. Separate your “self” from your thoughts and pay attention to what’s going on in your head. The difficulty is to do it objectively, without passing judgment on any one thought. Simply be aware of yourself as an objective observer of your ideas. This practice can be done at any time during the day or as part of a meditation session. Observing your ideas rather than attaching to them reduces the potency of the thoughts and feelings they generate.
The second strategy is to give that Thought a Name.
Another method to mentally detach yourself from your negative thoughts is to acknowledge that they are just thoughts, not reality.
Change your mental dialog to “I’m having the notion that I’ll never get all of this done” if you think “I’ll never get all of this done.” This only serves to emphasize that you are not your thoughts.
The third strategy is to Simply Say No.
Simply yell “STOP!” out loud (vocalizing encourages the interruption), and then envision a big metal wall crashing down in front of your racing thoughts.
Billy has a mental image of throwing negative thoughts and ideas down a rabbit hole or into a balloon that floats away.
The fourth strategy is to Try the Rubber Band Trick.
On your wrist, wear a rubber band. Stop and notice your thoughts, whenever you sense a negative thought. Put the rubber band on the opposite wrist or gently pop it on your wrist if you’re engaged in negative thinking. This physical activity has the potential to stop negative thoughts in their tracks.
The Fifth strategy is to Know Your Triggers.
A person, circumstance, or physical state can often induce over-thinking and negativity. Pay attention to the common concerns and anxieties you have.
Is there anything that triggers these thoughts in your head? If this is the case, make a list of the triggers so you can be aware of them when they occur. This awareness might help you avoid being caught off guard by negative ideas.
Distract Yourself (Strategy 6)
Distract yourself from the cycle. Do something to occupy your mind so that negative thoughts have no place to dwell. Immerse yourself in a project that requires concentration and thought. If you’re stalled in traffic or in line, memorize or recite scripture verses, go through your multiplication tables in your head, or try to memorize a poem or song.
Changing our negative ideas to positive ones might help us feel less fearful, anxious, and worried about the situation we’re in.
The Biblical Perspective to Dealing with Fear
“He has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-control,” God says in 2 Timothy 1:7. This paragraph is intended to make us aware of our own resources. We can’t continue to live our lives in dread. We can’t keep allowing fear to steal our joy and fulfillment.
Many individuals ask how listening to God’s messages might help them break free from fear. To completely overcome fear, we must remember that we are God’s children, created in His image and likeness, and that He only has wonderful things in mind for us.” ‘Do not be afraid, because I have rescued you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine,’ declares the Lord today “The Lord, who made Jacob and shaped Israel, says (Isaiah 43:1, NIV).
As long as we walk in God’s will, we have nothing to fear. As a result, we must take steps in the right direction in order to exercise our victory over fear by following God’s road of faith. Some of the steps are as follows:
• Say a prayer
In Philippians 4:6, the Bible urges us not to worry about anything, but to make our desires known to God via prayer. As a result, we are not only taught to stop worrying or feeling terrified, but we are also taught to pray instead of worrying.
• Keep your mind and body still.
The narrator adds, “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10; Psalm 46:11; Psalm 46:12; Psalm 46:13; Psalm 46:14; Psalm 46:15; Psalm
This verse again tells us that we must make conscious efforts to allow God’s voice to speak over our concerns. Relaxation has been ignored or relegated to a lower priority in today’s fast-paced environment. We must practice being still on a daily basis in order to be able to apply it effectively when confronted with true terror.
• Concentration
In Philippians 4:8, Paul writes, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one more thing.” Concentrate your attention on what is pure, beautiful, and admirable, as well as what is honest, honorable, and right.”
So, today, focus on anything other than your troubles. It’s not enough to try to avoid thinking about the frightening circumstance; you must also redirect your thoughts to something else. It’s a good reminder that concentrating on the good things in life might help you overcome fear in God’s way.
• Seek out friends and/or a counselor
We were never meant to walk through life alone. According to God, it is not good for man to be alone! He also warns us not to disregard the brethren’s gathering. Because if one person falls, the other can help [Ecclesiastes 4:10], it is vital to create links and affiliations that will support and encourage us.
If you phone or text a friend or counselor when panic strikes again, you will be encouraged if you participate in interactions and dialogues.
• Exercising
“Let us not become weary of doing what is right.” We will reap a harvest of rewards at the proper time if we don’t give up” (Galatians 6:9).
Please don’t give up. Do everything you can every day to battle dread. Also, continue to the pattern until you see the effects of your efforts. These should be used on a daily basis!
EXERCISE 4
Write out the positive response to each of the following negative thoughts.
1. I am not too good for the job.
2. No one loves me.
3. I am helpless, I have no control.
4. I am going to get sick.
5. I am afraid, I can’t do it.
6. I am not deserving.
7. I feel terrible, I have no strength.
8. I can never be happy.
9. I can’t stand her, I am so angry.
10. I am getting so old, I can’t do anything anymore.
11. I will never find love.
12. I will never forgive him/her.
13. I will never make enough money.
14. My life is a mess, I am overwhelmed.
15. I am trapped in this situation and will never get out.
16. Everything happening in the world is terrible.
17. I am sure; I will make a fool of myself.
18. I am a bad person and everyone can see it.
19. I am so ugly, who would want to be with me?
20. I hate the way my (face, hair, nose, teeth, body, leg e.t.c) looks.
Dr. Amanda Smith 