COURAGE

Courage simply put, the ability or strength to do what is right regardless of the consequences. The article you are about to read was culled from Norman Vincent's book "7 Values to live by for Success to be achieved" When I flip through this page, I was held spellbound. I felt different inside of me. A different kind of courage engulfed me and I became unsually bold. Read and act on this principles.
-CYPRIAN UDEBUIKE.

Successful living requires courage. Perhaps, courage is a basic-life quality that God gives us since it is from the spirit. Moments may come when courage alone may stand between us and disaster. There will be times when we shall need dogged courage to keep us going when the going gets hard. And what is the source of such rugged courage? It is the sense of God's presence, when we hear him say "I am with you always"

 To have courage first, do three things : First think courage. We become what we think. There is a law of attraction whereby like responds to like. If you think thoughts of courage, courage will flow to you. The more courageous your thinking, the greater your results will be. Second, act courageously. We usually get according to what we act. And we all have built into us the capacity to act with courage. Third, pray for courage. Pray for courage as you pray for your daily bread. God will give you Himself.

 Gladys Jones was a little person. Seated her feet scarcely touched the floor. But she had pure and undoubting faith in God. She trusted implicitly. She came to see me in New York City. I wonder how this quite petite lady had the courage to face the terrifying experience that were shown in the motion picture "Inn of the Sixth Happiness" As she visited me, I asked her to tell me the story.

 At a Salvation Army street meeting in London, she became converted, completely changing her life. The gentleman for she worked in London  had a wonderful library on China, and she began reading.
One day, her emloyer came in, found her reading, and reproached her. He said "I hired you to dust and clean, not to read my books. Besides, you didn't ask if you might read my books" "Sir" she said "I am fascinated with China" "Read the books then, but not until after you get the housework done" he replied.

 Through her reading , Gladys came to believe that God  wanted her go to China as a missionary. She went to the mission board. The members, all highly intellectual, highly educated church leaders, gave her an intellectual test she couldn't pass. They said:"No you can't go." But did that faze her? Not at all. She had receive her commission from a higher source than a mission board.

 So Gladys Jones went to China without any sponsorship and was now sitting in my study telling me about the times she spent on the streets in Yangchuan and other cities. The tiny British cockney woman told the people that no power on earth could overcome the person who gave his or her life to God and Jesus Christ. She went on telling this message weeks after weeks.

 One day, the governor called her, saying,"We have a terrible situation. There is a riot in the prison where murderes and vicious men are guarded by only twelve guards. If only we go in, they will kill us. One of the worst men in the prison has a huge meat cleaver, and has already killed two men and terrified the others. We want you to go in and take the meat cleaver out of his hands" "You must be out of your mind, sir" she said.

 "I have listened to you in the street saying that God is always with you, about Daniel in the Lion's den, and how Jesus Christ in your heart will protect you" "Ah, but you misundertand, sir" "Haven't you been telling the truth?" he replied. "I know what you've said, and I believe you"

She knew that if she  ever want people to believe, she would have to go into that prison. She asked the Lord to go into that prison with her and she felt strangely peaceful. After unlocking the prison door, they quickly shut her in. There, at the end of a long, narrow tunnel about shouting and cursing. She prayed, "Be with me, Lord"

She walked to the end of the tunnel and saw the man with the meat cleaver, which was dripping with blood, chasing another man. Suddenly, he was in front of her. They stood facing each other: the little woman and the giant. She looked into his wild and feverish eyes and calmly said, "Give me that weapon" There was a moment of hesitation; then, with utter docility, he handed it to her."Now" she said, "get in lie, all of you" Quitely they line up.

"What are your complaints?' she asked. "I will tell them to the governor, and I assure you in his name, that, where possible, they will be corrected" As a believer, Gladys found unbelievable courage. Her secret can be found in a scripture verse from psalms that gives a formular anyone can follow to find courage in any situation: "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears"(Psalms 34:4)

"Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not the absence of fear"
-Mark Twain