“BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS!”

Deuteronomy 31:3-6                         (ESV)
“3 The LORD your GOD HIMSELF will go over before you. HE WILL DESTROY these nations before you, SO THAT YOU MAY DISPOSSESS THEM, and Joshua will go over at your head, AS THE LORD HAS SPOKEN.
4 And the LORD will do to them as HE did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, WHEN HE DESTROYED THEM.
5 And the LORD WILL GIVE THEM over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you.
6 “BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS”. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your GOD WHO goes with you. HE will not leave you or forsake you."”




Regardless of what revisionists may try to make us believe, the United States of America was not always the most prosperous nation in the world.   Most pilgrims were seeking to escape the restraints of others who thought they knew best on how mankind should live, including how we worship the GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  WEALTH was an added benefit of serving GOD ALMIGHTY.  When our prosperity became more important than our Spiritual freedom, we began to drift away from our founding principles.  

As I sit drinking coffee some mornings:, the cup I used has this inscription::  “I GOT THIS—GOD”.  This country, but one person at a time, has a need to return to the GOD WHO protected and guided us through the wilderness of infancy and into the most powerful nation in history.  As long as our EYES were on GOD, the results were indisputably great.  As we started to admire our successes instead of the ONE WHO GAVE THEM to us, we have seen a decline in victories.

In today’s focal Scriptures GOD tells Moses that HE HIMSELF WILL GO OVER BEFORE YOU!  GOD doesn’t require our money, our efforts, our intervention, HE only requires us to “BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS” in the face of our enemies!  Many times Scripture states HE WILL FIGHT OUR BATTLES FOR US!  “BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS” doesn’t mean that we should spend all of our free time increasing our physical strength, rather in Joshua 1:7 HE tells us “Only BE STRONG AND VERY COURAGEOUS, being CAREFUL TO DO ACCORDING TO ALL THE LAW that Moses MY servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.”  We MUST return to searching HIS WORD for our success and allow HIM to make us “ BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS”!!!