Be strong and very courageous
Joshua 1:5-9 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
How would you like to be Joshua; the one who stepped into Moses’ shoes? The Lord is speaking to Joshua, commissioning him for the will of God for his life; to complete the mission of leading Israel into the promised land God had told them of. Great battles, and great victories would come as God would lead be their leader, but Joshua was to be God’s courageous leader of His people by following what Moses had done before him; by following the Law, it’s precepts, and being obedient to what God told them to do. God knew the size of the task he was laying before Joshua, and his commands to be strong and courageous were spoken to him three times in only a few verses. God was laying the foundation of understanding the importance of the Law (the Bible as we see it now), and the understanding that God is with Joshua (and us) in all that we do. I love how one of my study Bibles puts this: “Most difficult of all will be the middle responsibility-namely, to make the Lord’s instructions (Hebrew Torah, or now the Bible) integral to who he is and what he does, meditating on them constantly so as to do them.”
All your decisions in life are made by what you have put into your mind. If you are putting self-help nonsense that builds up the false teaching of pride, you will believe and fail in your own inability. If you are following the teachings of the world and it’s selfishness, you will collapse into a heap of pity one day when you realize nobody else thinks as highly of you. “You are what you believe” the Godliest man I know once told me. What do you believe? Do you believe and follow the power of God found in his Word? Do you spend daily time searching him out with your heart in prayer and meditation of his scriptures? Do you seek the things above found in his Word, or do you seek the temporal pleasures of this world? Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
My prayer for you is to see the promise of God to Joshua; the same promise of God to you thousands of years later. He will not leave you nor forsake you, but you must see the importance of seeking Him. He is not at your beckon call as some go-to fairy of desire; He is the Lord over all of creation that will guide you through this life into the next. Your heart for him is shown by your desire for him. This heart is either rewarded eternally, or suffer the same. If this life is preparation for the next, why would you not spend time in the Book that teaches you how?
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