Facing the New Year with Courage

"Be strong and courageous!"
Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV

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 those beliefs.

Every Promised Land has giant-sized problems, and you have to face them and defeat them before moving in and taking up residence. Notice three things in Deuteronomy Chapter 7 (NIV) 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). Your God is greater than any opposition you are facing.

(2) "Will drive out those nations before you (v22)." 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 (v22)." 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, then you march in the victory parade. No, it's a series of small daily victories required to defeat the enemies of your Spiritual growth.

Twenty-four chapters later God is still telling Israel to be courageous ( Deuteronomy 31:6). 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 - tremble your way to confidence! God promised to go with them, and go before them. Who does God walk with and work with? Who does He go ahead of and arrange things for? The courageous!


May we all face 2008 with courage!!!

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P.S. Thanks to ate olive for sharing this article. :)