This was in one of my devotions last week and is a great one for the start of a brand new year! Enjoy!
Without courage, you're not living, you're hiding! Courage is what moves you forward; it's the muscle that makes your faith work. Faith by itself can be nothing more than a set of beliefs. Courage is what activates your beliefs. Every Promised Land has 'giant' problems, and you have to face them and defeat them before moving in and taking up residence. Notice 3 things in Deuteronomy, Chapter 7, that God said to Israel about taking the Promised Land:
(1) "Your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God" (v. 21). Be assured, God is greater than anything you'll face this year!
(2) "Will drive out those nations before you" (v. 22). God will go ahead of you. He will do for you what you cannot do for yourself, but you've got to show up for the fight.
(3) "Little by little" (v. 23). Whether it's conquering your Promised Land or your character flaws, you can't do it all at once. So God works with you in one area after another. Life is not one big battle and then you march in the victory parade. No, it's a series of small, daily struggles required to defeat the enemies of your spiritual growth.
Twenty-three chapters later, God is still telling Israel to be courageous. That's because courage is like oxygen, you can't survive without it. Courage is not the absence of fear, it's the conquest of it. Courage means doing it afraid - until you're no longer afraid. It means - trembling your way to confidence! God promised to go with then and before them. Who does God walk with and work with? Who does He go ahead of and fight for? Those who show COURAGE!
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