BRAVE - HEART

The heart is a muscle that pumps blood to all parts of our body. And the blood which is pumped by our heart provides our body with the Oxygen and nutrients it needs to function effectively. Our marvellous heart is about the size of a clenched fist, and weighs between 300 and 450g.

This heart lies in the middle of our chest, behind and slightly to the left of your breastbone.

Now, apart from the medical aspect and meaning of heart, there are other aspect and meaning of heart which is exactly what I want us to talk about, like: The heart being the place where love and affection is stored; it is where ones innermost character, feeling or inclination come from. It is a place where courage, enthusiasm, especially when maintained during a difficult situation comes from. It is also where emotional or moral nature as distinguished from the intellectual nature such as generosity, compassion etc are stored. It is also where immorality, wickedness and all kinds of evil devices come from as well. Do you get that?

However, let's look at the meaning of Brave. What is Brave? According to the Oxford dictionary it means : ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage. It also means to endure and face unpleasant conditions or behavior without showing fear.

Nonetheless, Bravery is not the absent of fear but the courage to show up in hard times, difficult situations and to be resilient even when it gets tougher.

When someone says Brave heart or when you hear or see the word Brave heart, what comes to your mind? Remember, these are two words: Brave and Heart. Just two words combined to give us the word

Brave-Heart. So, what is Brave- Heart?

Well, there's no clear definition of the word Brave Heart but it does have a meaning and I will give it to you.

I know it has been illustrated in lots of movies with amazing actors exhibiting acts of bravery in characters they portray. There's even a movie with the title: Brave-Heart, I can go on and on.

But in my own clear understanding of Brave-Heart : it means a heart of a person who has the tendency to withstand hard or difficult situations. It is one whose heart shows great strength and courage. One whose heart can take all sort of evil manovering, hard life, bad experiences, complicated situationships etc, and still comes out stronger, better, smarter and wiser.

Brave hearts are "never give up's". They are resilient people. Notwithstanding, the Good and bad people can all posses this quality of heart; it's a matter of choice. And it also depends on what you are fighting for in life or what you stand as a person, like your purpose, beliefs, values etc.

If you stand for good– you'll use your quality of heart to fight for it likewise the person who stand for bad. In otherwords, everyone has what they are fighting for or what they are rooting for. So, your heart will fight for what it beliefs in.

Therefore, Brave-Heart is a heart anybody can have. It's a choice thing. They good and bad people all possess this heart, reason why a good or bad people are usually persistent in achieving a goal they set out to do. You wonder why some people will go to any length to get a well planned out crime to happen without fear of the Government or being caught or even dying in the process? Brave heart is the answer. Anybody can have it, but what you choose to do with it, it's your choice.

Now, let's bring this home, we are Believers–

Christains– God's Children– Jesus's Begotten Children– HolySpirit filled Children – right?

Let's be honest, after all I have said here about Brave-Heart. What kind of heart do you think God our father would want us to have?

Obviously– Our Father would want us to acquire a Brave heart; reason why he allows us to go through diverse tribulations, he puts our hearts through difficult trials and test. He allows us to come in contact with temptations that can destroy us or bring us down in our lives pursuit but didn't, because He knows that those bad situationship won't destroy us, it will only make us stronger, better and wiser and even more humbler for the master's use.

Hard times builds the bravest of hearts, so they say, which is true. I have learnt this through my own life experience. Infact, you never know what you can really do until you are faced with a tough, life threatening challenge. It's through difficult life experiences that a Brave-Heart is built. No one is born with it, it's actually acquired. And when you get it, what you do with it, it's now your choice.

During the hardship period, some people's hearts easily gets corrupted or contaminated with viruses like: Anger, malice, revenge, jealousy, pride etc, over hurtful issues that was beyond their control. So, when they finally come out of their hard times successfully, of course with a Brave-Heart, they usually don't use that heart for good. They come up with different excuses of why they need to revenge or boost about their achievements. The point is that, they didn't learn the good out of their hard time, so the negative is the case. Not everyone who went through hard trial comes out positive most people come out negative, mostly a lot of people. Reason why darkness is still thriving in our world. So many hearts are contaminated everyday by one situation or the other.

A contaminated heart can do no good; even if it's a brave heart. Only a good and a pure heart can use it's Brave heart for the good of others and then himself.

Let's look at the Examples of those who used their Brave heart for the good of all as seen in the Bible. We'll look at two people, Joseph and David.

1.) Joseph: Suffered injustice and betrayal both from his blood brothers, his boss and his wife, respectively. Rather than give up on life or build up hatred for the people who hurt him he chose to forgive them. He kept his heart away from being contaminated by the evil done to him. He maintained his good heart as he eventually used it to deliver the world from hunger and starvation.

Bible Reference:

Genesis 37:1-36, Genesis 39:1-23, Genesis 40:1-23, Genesis 41:1-57, Genesis 42:1-38, Genesis 43:1-34, Genesis 44:1-34, Genesis 45:1-28, Genesis 46:1-34, Genesis 47:1-31

2.) David: He also suffered injustice from a king he genuinely loved and served loyally. King Saul sort for ways to kill David out of jealousy, why? Because he heard of the prophecy that David would be king of Israel because he Saul disobeyed God's command to destroy all Amalekittes– God took the throne away from him and gave it to his loyal servant David. So, David became a threat to King Saul even when he never directly or indirectly threatened king Saul and his throne, he was loyal. David ran for his life as King Saul chased him around Israel and neighboring countries. He made the innocent man a fugitive including David's family, they all became a fugitive as well. With all these wickedness showered on him by King Saul, David kept his heart away from hatred, malice, anger and revenge. He had chances to kill the king and get his freedom and revenge but he chose to forgive and let God fight for him. And when God finally fought for him– David became King of Israel and was a good one, in fact, the best. He was such a Good King with a Good heart, reason why God named him: "The man after my heart". David till this day happens to be the Best Human King the world has ever had and known.

Bible Reference:

1 Samuel 13:1-14, 1 Samuel 15:1-35, 1 Samuel 16:1-23, 1 Samuel 17:1-58, 1 Samuel 18:1-30, 1 Samuel 19:1-24, 1 Samuel 20:1-42, 1 Samuel 21:1-15, 1 Samuel 22:1-23, 1 Samuel 23:1-29, 1 Samuel 24:1-22, 1 Samuel 26:1-25, 1 Samuel 27:1-12, 1 Samuel 29:1-11, 1 Samuel 31:1-13, 2 Samuel 1:27, 2 Samuel 2:1-11.

In conclusion, earlier on, I stated that a contaminated heart can't please God. Such heart is only filled with bitterness, anger, hatred etc. God wants to work with people whose heart has undergone some hardship, wickedness, injustice, betrayal etc, and still chooses to forgive and do good.

These are the pure ones, they've gone through the darkness and still chooses to keep their light 💡 shining.

I don't know who you are but I know you are a believer and a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ and so we are connected by the blood of Jesus Christ. I want to encourage you to stay strong, stay sharp, and keep your light 💡 shining no matter what, and you might as well be the next David or Joseph.

Bible References :

Joshua 1:9, 1 Corinthians 16:13, Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 31:24