Be Strong & Courageous

In late June of 2018, I was given the idea to create a blog. I brushed off this idea for several reasons. First of all, I am not a writer; I have always felt very weak in this area. The list for reasons why I shouldn’t start a blog endlessly came through my head; how will you ever come up with ideas, you always get writer’s block, etc. I would tell myself that I had nothing to say, no one would want to read anything that I had to say anyway, what could I provide that someone else wasn’t already providing in their blogs. The whole time I was dealing with this idea I could feel that God would equip me to handle this whole idea if it were in His plan, but I pushed this idea to the side and left it alone.

Fast forward to this June, my husband said to me that I should write a blog. When he said these words to me I thought surely he knows that I am not a writer by nature, and he knows how boring I am. The funny thing is that just a matter of days prior I watched a video of a pastor preaching on Samuel and Eli. The pastor made mention in his sermon that sometimes God uses others in our lives to validate what He is telling us. Of course the blog idea had never left me, I had actually started looking at names in May of this year, but I had still had that sense of this idea will never come to fruition. So I brushed my husband’s idea off and told him that I was not a writer, but he didn’t let go of this idea. (He is such a positive influence on my life. God knew I needed him in my life, but that is a post for another day.) My hubs mentioned it again a few days later and this time I told him that I had thought about it before and even looked at names, as soon as I told him the name he loved it and started setting up a blog site!

I didn’t get started right away, it has taken me a little while to get the courage to actually write anything! Today, I was reading a devotional about Joshua (the devotional is by Gwen Smith and it is titled “Are You Afraid or Discouraged?”)  Hello God, I hear you! So while reading this devotional I realized that God knows that I need His direction and His strength, I cannot do this alone, so He sent me a little reminder.

5No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7Only 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. 8This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:5-9 ESV

In this passage, God tells Joshua 3 times to be Strong and Courageous! God encouraged Joshua and Joshua obeyed! So when God is leading us in a new direction and we start to feel out of our element we should take heed to the words that He gave to Joshua, be strong and courageous don’t be worried because God is with you!

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