Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” There are a lot of things going wrong in the world right now. There are even things in our own families that have us scared. I thought this verse would be a great reminder that we don't have anything to fear because the Lord our God is right there by our side. He is our protector and He won't let anything happen to us. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Be Bold & Be Strong & Courageous (Be Bold Series)
Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
I saw this verse on my refrigerator this morning. A few years ago, someone gave me one of the desk calendars. Each day, a new page features a new picture of amazing scenery worldwide. The calendar also includes a different Bible verse. I hung this one on the fridge because I needed the reminder. Today, I know several of you need this reminder, too!
This is a great reminder to be strong and courageous. A lot is happening in the world right now, both in our own families and our own houses and the world at large. I know people who are scared because their loved ones had major surgery, and their recovery is going slow. They are worried that things won’t get back to normal or that it will be a long and painful road back to normal. I know someone living in her car right now who is tired of not having a safe place to sleep at night. I know someone else who is always scared, and she is unsure why. As you can see, there are many reasons why I thought this would be a great verse for today’s devotional.
In this verse, the Lord reminds us not to be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Do we know this already? I wonder if we are scared even though we know the Lord is with us always or if we forget this and that is why we are scared. It can be one thing to know the Lord is always with you and another to know He will take care of everything. I was talking with a friend the other day, and she knows the Lord is with her always, and yet she can’t help but be scared of things. This fear that she has did not just develop overnight. She has carried it with her from childhood and is only now finding some freedom from it.
Isn’t it amazing how things from our childhood or past can have such a strong influence on our present and future? Often, we don’t even realize our past is creeping into our present. We know we are scared of something but don’t know what. Maybe we are scared of our boyfriend or husband leaving us. We don’t know where this fear is coming from, and yet, if we look back at our past history, we have had loved ones leave us. We might be afraid that our loved one will not recover completely from surgery, and when we look back, we see that in the past, we knew people who had surgery and didn’t recover.
Our past can creep in and try to make us afraid of the future. This is one of the enemy's favorite tricks. He loves to use our past against us. He loves to point out all the places where we messed up in the past and try to get us to believe we will do it again. He loves to point out all the places where people have hurt us in the past and get us to believe they will do it again. We are not our past. Just because something has happened in the past does not mean it will happen again.
It is not easy to be strong and courageous. If it were, everyone would be doing it, and this world wouldn’t be such a scary place. However, it is possible. It says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but of power, love, and self-discipline.” We were not born with a spirit of fear and timidity. God created us with a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. However, sometime in the course of our lives, a lot of us have lost or forgotten about the spirit that God created us with. We have become afraid and timid. It is time to reclaim our true nature, our true spirit.
The question is, how do we do that? How do we reclaim our spirit of power, love, and self-discipline? I think we can do it by remembering what this verse tells us. We must remember that the Lord is with us wherever we go. I think sometimes we think that we can go places that the Lord won’t follow. For instance, we are stuck in a pit of despair, and so there is no way the Lord would be with us there. Guess what? He is right there next to you in that pit. We think He won’t follow us into the hospital or home from the hospital. He is right beside you as you do your best to help your loved one. God does not leave your side, no matter where you go. If you are sleeping in your car, God is sleeping right there next to you.
God is always by our side, and the more we can remember this, the more we will be able to be strong and courageous. The more we believe that God is right there with us, the more we will trust in His protection. I have heard many stories of people who have been scared and cried out to the Lord, and miraculous things have happened. For instance, one time, a woman was about to walk down an alley and saw a man who looked pretty scary at the end of the alley. She asked the Lord for protection. The next day, she read in the paper that a woman was attacked in that same alley that same night. She went to the police station to help ID the man she saw in the alley. When she asked him why he did not attack her when she walked by, he said it was because of the tall guy she had walking with her. She didn’t have anyone but God with her that night. Isn’t that amazing?
God will protect you. He will give you the strength you need. I know some of you need an extra dose of strength today, and He can give it to you. I know some of you need an extra dose of hope today. He has that for you, too! The Lord is always with us, and He has whatever we need. He can give us courage and strength, He can give us love and hope, He can give us whatever we need. We just have to turn to Him and ask Him! If you feel scared, hopeless, or a little lost today, I want to encourage you to remember that the Lord is ALWAYS with you, even if you can’t feel His presence. Call upon Him, and He will be there with whatever it is you need.
Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we need your strength today. We need your hope and your love today. We need to feel your presence today, Lord. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. The theme for mentoring this month is I Am Made New. Click on the link below to get all the information on mentoring. It might be a great way to spend your lent. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I have told Peter and you in scripture to forgive 70 times 7. That's a huge number. It's not a number that you can even imagine. And I give it to you as good advice for your life. But I want you right now to remember that I forgive you many, many, many, many, many more times. I forgive you as many drops there are in the ocean. Do you know, could you possibly count that? Count on my forgiveness, believe in my forgiveness, and share my forgiveness with others.”