He Makes Me Brave
- Susie Renzema
- Oct 1
- 4 min read
While journaling the book of Acts last month one word in particular kept coming to my mind over and over, the word brave. The bravery and boldness of Peter and John and the early followers of Jesus was in every chapter we read. Then, on September 10 there was the Charlie Kirk assassination and suddenly everyone was talking about being more emboldened in their faith and in sharing the gospel, myself included. While journaling Acts 18, something occurred to me, specifically in regard to verses 9 and 10;
“Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent. For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”
As I often do, I went to Enduring Word online bible commentary to see what they might have to say about these verses, and this one sentence reframed the entire passage for me. It reads as follows;
“Jesus didn’t tell Paul that his opponents wouldn’t try to stop him, only that they wouldn’t be successful (no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you).”
I wrote this in my journal; “Jesus, that’s it, isn’t it? We want that safety and security. We don’t even want anyone to try to oppose us, we want smooth sailing and guaranteed success, and that everyone will like us in the process! Ha! Where in the world did we get that idea?”
My next stop was Webster’s online dictionary, they define brave (adjective) as, “having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty: having or showing courage.” The verb form is defined as, “to face or endure with courage,” and the noun form definition is, “one with mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty: one who is brave.” Okay, that seems pretty self explanatory but I don’t feel like I possess a tremendous amount of mental strength in the face of danger, I usually just want to cry. So I kept digging, and looked next at the history and etymology of the word. Brave is from the Middle French, borrowed from Italian bravo “courageous, wild,” and the verb form is from the Middle French braver “to challenge, flout (which means to treat with contemptuous disregard).”
When I consider those definitions I’m left with the impression that this kind of bravery is something inside of me, a mental fortitude that rises to the occasion, and the words wild and flout seem to suggest a kind of thumbing your nose at danger. I don’t think the early disciples were behaving wildly to call attention to themselves or flouting their position in the cities they were evangelizing. But there is no doubt that they acted bravely everywhere they went.
My next stop was an online Greek dictionary and, as is often the case, the Greek word for brave leads us in a completely different direction. The Greek word for brave is tharseō (thar-SEH-o), Strongs Greek 2293, it is defined as, “a summons to inward confidence that rests on an external source—God’s saving presence. The verb never depicts self-generated (italics mine) optimism; it always arises from a word or act of the Lord that decisively removes the cause of fear” (emphasis mine). Do you see the promise in that definition? The Lord removes the fear, and even if he doesn’t, he provides the mental, emotional strength to do what he calls us to. The bottom line is this, we may be scared, but we’re never alone.
Years ago I heard definition of courage that I’ve gone back to repeatedly, “courage is being scared but doing it anyway,” or “do it scared.” I’ve repeated that phrase to myself while climbing a mountain and white water rafting, but also when walking into a room of people I don’t know, or standing behind a podium to speak. And the most remarkable thing is that once I get started, or once I get done, I’m usually so glad I did whatever it was that had me so scared. Why? Because there’s something to meeting a challenge and making it through. It boosts our confidence, it feels good to say “I did___.”
The Apostles, however, were not in it for a boost of their confidence, they were following a call from the Lord Jesus himself, a call they couldn’t ignore. A call that put them in constant danger and eventually claimed each of their lives. But think of this, had they turned back because of fear, I might not be writing this today and you might not be reading it. And the truth is, for many of us the most terrifying thing of all isn’t climbing a mountain or whitewater rafting, it’s sharing our faith with someone else. So as you pray for courage, as you pray for boldness, remember tharseō, “an inward confidence that rests on an external source — God’s saving presence” is living inside of you. So scared or not, just do it!
A bit of housekeeping: This month many of the passages are quite long, I’m leaving it up to you to journal the verses of your choice whenever they are not specified. Look for the words courage, boldness, and the phrase “take heart” as you read.
