I don’t know about you, but I had to suck it up and be brave when I wanted to roll over and die. Sometimes those moments were caused by others, and God will deal with them, BUT mostly, I did many atrocious things to myself. There are valid reasons, essentially birthed out of a child’s understanding of unresolved hurt. One of my earliest earnest and repetitive prayers as a new Christian was, “God, please take away the suffering.” It was misguided because I needed to suffer through my suffering to get into my healing. I needed to get through my dysphoria to find my identity in Christ. I needed to feel my self-loathing to know that God’s Love is so valuable because He Alone loves me enough for me to desire to love myself. Bravely into recovery to get clean. Firmly facing judgement to aim for what God says is righteousness.
God repeatedly tells the Israelites to be strong and courageous as they walk into the promises of God. The thing is this- God uses our circumstances to shape us into being who He says we are, and God strengthens us because Jesus tells us in John 15 vs 17-19, “This is My command to you: Love one another. If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. But, instead, the world hates you because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”
We are NOT going to have an easy life. Life, REAL LIFE anyway, will be tough. So tough that the word strength and its derivatives are mentioned over 360 times in the Bible, applying to both natural and supernatural strength. The Greek word katei means “power, strength, might.” The Bible often attributes strength to the Lord God’s power. Courage is mentioned 114 times, and the combo of strong and courageous 13 times.
YES, BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS!!!
Be strong and of good courage:
‘Joshua is called to boldness in God. This exposes Joshua’s weakness; there was a need for such a command because even a great leader like Joshua needed such encouragement.
This bold courage would not be in Joshua himself, but in God. We can be full of self-confidence that will take us to ruin, but we should instead be full of a genuine God-confidence.’-https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/joshua-1/
A man that made South Africa famous and stirred the world with hope is the late former President Nelson Mandela, affectionately known as Tata. Tata has some truly sound advice about courage. Considering years of discrimination and 27 years of jail time to become President, we can agree that there are some self-doubts he would have overcome.
The Hebrew word for strong in Joshua 1 is ḥă-zaq, which means ‘to strengthen, prevail, harden, be strong, become strong, be courageous, be firm, grow firm, be resolute’.- Brown-Driver-Briggs’
Courageous in Hebrew, Joshua 1, is we-’ĕ-māṣ. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance explains, ‘A primitive root; to be alert, physically (on foot) or mentally (in courage) — confirm, be courageous (of good courage, steadfastly minded, strong, stronger), establish, fortify, harden, increase, prevail, strengthen (self), make strong (obstinate, speed)’
Paul, the Christian killer, brilliant religious legal mind in his day, turned Follower of Christ, who wrote most of the New Testament, which clarifies the Old Testament, tells us how to take courage and strength from Messiah King Jesus, 2 Corinthians 12 vs 7-10.
God could have eliminated all the Israelite enemies with a mere thought, but He called Israel into partnership with Himself to see His will done. Because taking the land took effort, the challenge ahead was not for those content with Egypt, but for those who would press ahead for what God had called them to.
HOW IN YOUR LIFE ARE YOU SETTLING FOR “EGYPT”AND SLAVE-MENTALITY BY NOT FOLLOWING GOD AS HE LEADS US INTO SPACES, PLACES, AND FACES THAT REQUIRE COURAGE?
#Hayibo 