His Encouragement #81

Good morning, and welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He and He alone is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

---

Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

1 Chronicles 12:8 (NASB)

From the Gadites there came over to David in the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for war, who could handle shield and spear, and whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains.

On Monday, my Bible study passages focused on King David’s mighty men of valor. I’ve been thinking about that phrase a lot this week — mighty men of valor. What a fabulous title. I know for a fact that I could never be considered such a thing. I can’t imagine running head first into a battle where I would have to hurt someone in order to save myself, my people, my king, etc. I faint at the smell of blood. There’s just no way!

But as I was considering “mighty men of valor,” I started to question: what is a mighty man of valor, and do we have any today?

According to 1 Chronicles 12, a mighty  man of valor is someone with the following characteristics:

• he is courageous and will fly upon the enemy, not flee from it
• he is swift in his tasks no matter what those tasks may be
• he is a man who causes fear in the hearts of his enemy
• he is disciplined
• he is daring
• he is a man who breaks through (overcomes) his greatest difficulties

When I imagine “mighty men of valor,” this is what I envision:

For those of you who have never seen the movie, this image is a still taken from the film 300 starring Gerard Butler as King Leonidas. This is the Spartan king and his 299 men who devastated King Xerxes’ Persian military (yes, King Xerxes from the book of Esther). These Spartans were intense. EVERYONE feared them. They were exactly “mighty men of valor.”

Now I know what they are, but do we have any examples of mighty men today?

Of course, the first to come to mind are all of the brave men and women who serve in our military. Regardless of the military branch, these men and women sacrifice their lives so that regular people like me can enjoy safety and security. I have freedoms because brave and courageous people fight for my right to have them. The second group of people who came to mind is our police force. These are also men and women who choose to work an exceptionally dangerous job in order to make a nation’s citizens safe. Every day they put their very lives on the line to take down evil and crime.

But then a third group came to mind — our firefighters. Firefighters are an amazing group of humans. Every single day they are on the job they fly upon the enemy — fires and accidents. Countless times, they run into the scary moments in life while others are busy fleeing. Firefighters are extremely swift at their tasks because they know lives are dependent upon their immediate arrival. Metaphorically, they do face an enemy — fire — that quakes in its boots. They are exceptionally disciplined, daring, and they overcome great adversity on every single call they attend. In short, today’s firefighters are exactly Mighty Men (and Women) of Valor. They are an awe-inspiring force to be sure.

By now, if you have stuck it out this long, you are probably saying to yourself, “OK, but what does any of this have to do with me?!”

Excellent question.

We can all be Mighty Men and Women of Valor too. It says so in Ephesians 6:10-18:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.

So we may not be a mighty warrior in the sense that we are militarily trained and purposely run into battle. We may not intentionally run towards a fire or a severe accident. And we may not rid the streets of evil and crime. But we can ALL be warriors for God. We all have the power to become spiritual Mighty Men and Women of Valor. And, when we do so, God gives us His strong armor. How cool is that?!

---

NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

Gina @ Stories by Gina

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes