Fearless預覽

"DO NOT FEAR TOMORROW"

Do you ever become fearful about things in the distant future? Instead of fearing in advance, we need to stay a step ahead of fear. As Joshua was leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, God delivered through Joshua one of the greatest motivational speeches anyone has ever read. Joshua gives some powerful, practical admonitions in chapter 1 of Joshua that can help us beat fear in advance.

The first promise God gives to the people is in 1:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He assured Joshua a lifetime of continuous victory over his enemies, based on His unfailing presence and help.

This obviously does not mean a promise that we will never experience difficulty or defeat.

God has never called anyone to a task and then abandoned him or her by the side of the road. If we fear what God wants us to do, our perspective needs adjusting so that we focus not on the size of the job but on the size of God.

God has a consistent promise to accompany us on the journey. He never says, “You go, and I’ll wait here for you.” He says, “Let’s go. I’m right beside you.”

Verse 7 continues the heart of God’s motivational speech to Joshua. Three times He tells him to be strong and courageous. The word strong means to be resolute, firm, and not easily swayed.

Courage involves saying “no” to yourself and living in God’s strength.

In verse 8, Joshua is encouraged to battle fear by savoring the importance of being governed by God’s Word. God didn’t tell Joshua that his priority needed to be military strategy, financial backing, or bilateral relations with neighboring countries. These things have a place, but they are not the path to courageous, fearless living. Here was Joshua’s priority: meditate day and night on the principles of the Word of God.

As we seek courage to conquer the giants in our lives, we need to make our top priority the Word of God.

To meditate means to read with thoughtfulness, to linger over God’s Word.

We fill every corner of our thinking with rich, eternal truth before the errors of the world can take root there and infect us. We live in this world, and we’ll be exposed to all that is wrong about it.

Do not fear tomorrow. Beat fear now. By practicing these principles from Joshua 1, we can learn to beat fear in advance by the grace of God.