Student Leadership 801: Courage Sample

Day One: Diving in Faith First

“What keeps us from being courageous is that we don’t know what to expect.” — Sarah Jakes Roberts

The unexpected terrifies us. It’s the pit in your stomach as you wait to hear back from your dream school. It’s the tension in your back when you're asked to try something new outside your comfort zone. It’s the sudden lack of air when you're confronted with a hard choice. We hate not knowing what comes next!

The people mentioned in the Bible could definitely relate. Sure, we all know how their stories end now, but the events we talk about so casually on Sundays were high-stress situations for them. That’s why learning from them is so important.

For Esther, what came next would mean life or death for not just her, but the Jewish people. Her cousin Mordecai’s request that she approach her husband, King Artaxerxes, to ask for the salvation and protection of the Jews, was not a simple task. For one thing, it wasn’t like Esther could just bring this up to Artaxerxes over the dinner table. In that time and culture, you needed to be invited by the king to even get near him, and Esther had no such invite. The Bible says it was well known that anyone who came before the king uninvited would be put to death unless the golden scepter was extended to them. Artaxerxes had gotten rid of a queen before, so Esther had every reason to be terrified.

Yet when Esther felt fear, she chose faith instead. She embodied exactly what 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us: “For we live by faith, not by sight.”

Esther might not have been able to see the future, but she knew how faithful God had been in the past. It was this knowledge that allowed her to dive in faith first and present herself before the king.

She could have chosen her own safety. She was the queen, and no one but Mordecai knew she was a Jew — it would have been easy to keep her head down and simply pray it would all work itself out. But when we run from what we fear, we set ourselves up to run for the rest of our lives.

Being courageous doesn’t mean you don’t feel fear; it means you are not deterred or controlled by it in the face of danger or pain. Esther didn’t suddenly stop feeling scared just because she had faith. But the fear didn’t keep her from diving into the opportunity God had for her.

Practical Step: What is something you have been avoiding because of fear? How can you choose faith over fear today?