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Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” I have come to think that fear and discouragement are two of the greatest enemies that we face as Christians. God made the statement in Joshua 1:9 to Joshua after he took over the leadership of Israel from Moses. Talk about being a hard act to follow – Moses would have been it! How would you like to have to fill the shoes of such a leader? It would have been easy for Joshua to be afraid. Consider all that Moses had done: through the power of God, he’d delivered the plagues upon Egypt, led the Israelites out of the land of captivity, parted the Red Sea, received the 10 commandments in a personal encounter with God, called down the manna and water that kept them alive, shepherded them through 40 years in the wilderness, etc. Now, it was time to enter and take the Promised Land. Warfare lay ahead – and Joshua knew it would be bloody. Fear would have been a normal human reaction. And it could have stopped Joshua and Israel, and it can stop you and I in our tracks. Whether it’s fear of failure, ridicule, physical harm, mental or emotional harm, fear of loss, fear of intimidation, fear of responsibility – it doesn’t matter. God tells Joshua to not be terrified! But God knows that fear is just one part of what can paralyze us. Discouragement can take the heart right out of us. It doesn’t take a huge disappointment to paralyze us – a series of small ones will do the job just fine, thank you. When discouragement sets it, we don’t need fear to stop us – we stop ourselves because we don’t have the energy left to fight the battle any longer. But the real secret to not being afraid or discouraged is to know the source of your commission: God has commanded us! Not only has He commanded us, but when we pass through the fearful shadows or the valleys of discouragement, He has promised that He will be with us WHEREVER we go. That means if we go to the victory stand or are “losers”, whether we are discouraged or on the top of the world, He is with us. Now doesn’t that take the fear and discouragement out of any situation? Copyright 2003 Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”> |