Joshua 1:9 “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, nether be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
II Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Isaiah 41:10 “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
This is the seventh in an eight-part series originating from our new book: In God I Trust: Making Our National Motto My Personal Declaration.
Fear on the verge of the Promised Land paralyzed the Israelites. Though it was universally known as a land that flowed with milk and honey, it also was populated by a formidable adversary. Their unwillingness to trust in God caused them to wonder in the wilderness for forty unnecessary, wasteful, challenging years. Eventually they got to where they belonged, but their fear caused them to be delayed for four long decades. Their faithless fear created a self-inflicted decades-long delay in the desert.
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, nether be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9). These were not hollow words for Moses’s successor. They were a necessary charge to a people whose lack of trust had melted away their strength and courage. Similarly, they are a necessary charge to us today so that we do not unnecessarily delay our progress towards God’s plans for us.
PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO TRUST IN GOD EVEN WHEN WE ARE FEARFUL. Our faithless fear must not create a self-inflicted decades-long delay in the desert.
ADMIN: This PLUS post comes from my new book, In God I Trust: Making Our National Motto My Personal Declaration, written alongside Pastor Brad Wells. You can find it on Amazon here:
