Courage is essential if we are to act on intelligent faith. For this reason God patiently helped him to develop it. “I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp… and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” (Judges 7.9-11)

Proof that Gideon was afraid is that he went down to the camp to get one more sign that God was going to give him the victory – even when God said, “But if you are afraid to go down…” So Gideon went down. In other words, he was still afraid!

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It’s important to know that the heroes of the Bible were just like us.

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They were fearful, they doubted, they weren’t born courageous, they didn’t believe in themselves, and at times they sinned badly.

But when an intelligent faith was present and their hearts were sincere, God used them anyway. He gave them a chance to overcome their complexes and fears.

Some people seem to have been born with the gene of courage. For the rest of us, courage only comes when we do what we have to do IN SPITE OF our feelings of fear.