Be Strong and Courageous

We are now in Colorado, away from family, friends, and everything that is familiar. We have a new apartment (never lived in one before) and new weather (never experienced sub-zero temps or this much snow). Chris has a new job and new co-workers, the kids are in new schools, we need to find a new church, and I need to find a new ministry path. There is a whole lot of room for fear here in all that is new and unknown.

This morning, I was praying and reading through Joshua 1 (a very familiar passage that close friends have pointed me to often), but this morning, something new caught my attention. Joshua 1:9 says, “This is my command –be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (NLT). Did you see the first part of that verse? “This is my command” (NLT, VOI), or “Have I not commanded you?” (NIV, ESV).

The instruction to "be strong and courageous" is not just a feel-good word of encouragement or a stereotypical piece of advice offered in difficult times. It is a command, a charge, an order, a decree. It is to “state with force/authority what others must do” (7422 DBL Hebrew). This same verb is used in Genesis 2:16 where God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Obviously, God meant for that to be obeyed! I was then reminded of Jesus' words, “if you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15 NLT). Does this include all His commands –even the one to "be strong and courageous"?

Now look at the the promise in next part of Jesus’ statement. After He says to obey His commands, He says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you” (John 14:16 NLT). This is familiar and reminiscent of the Joshua passage. After the command to be strong and courageous, Joshua 1:9 goes on to say, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh 1:9b NLT). And a few verses earlier, God assures Joshua “I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Josh 1:5b NIV). 

The command to "be strong and courageous" should be an easy one to obey, but it is not. It seems that we often have a hard time remembering that God loves us more than we can imagine or comprehend, He wants what is best for us, and He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us. If the King and Creator of the universe, the Lord who sacrificed greatly so that we could be with Him, has made us this promise, why do we find it so difficult to obey the command to be strong and courageous and not to live in fear? Let us continually remind each other that Jesus is Immanuel. He is God with us, and we have no reason to fear.

Here is my reminder of this: "Immanuel: God is with Us"