Be of Good Courage!

by Bill Krause

We all have some moment or period of time when we go through discouragement.  There is no time I know of that discouragement is a benefit or helps us to go forward.  We need to resist discouragement like we would resist any other attack against us.

God told Joshua to be strong and of good courage.  He was told this so he could observe to do the right thing according to the Word of God.  When we lose our courage we have lost sight of the wholesome perspective of the benefit of our lives.  

Think back to the last time you were discouraged.  You will find in most cases that you started looking at your life, your situation from the negative side, and you began to lose hope.  We become discouraged when we do not think that life is going right for us.  When life really stinks for someone we know or care about, we may feel bad but not discouraged.  When it happens to us, when our life is not going right, when we lose our hope -- that is when discouragement sets in.

There are times that we all feel like quitting.  When this happens, you need to ask yourself, “What good will that do to me?”  “What great place will quitting cause me to arrive?”  Anytime that we have quit on life when we come back to reality we find ourselves in worse condition than we were when we started.  Quitting does not work.  Getting discouraged does not help us out of our predicament. 

Joshua 1:9 says, “Have I not commanded? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

It is a command from God to be strong.  God does not ask us to do something we cannot do.  Jesus told us that if we love Him we would keep His commandments.  We do love Jesus, therefore we will obey His command to be strong and of good courage; we will hold steady to our prescribed course.

Hudson Taylor once said, “It doesn’t matter where pressure comes from, only what we do when pressure comes.”  We can either let the pressure of our life press us closer to our problems or press us nearer to God.  They should press us nearer to God.

All of us come under pressure. We are all attacked with the idea of quitting and being discouraged.  The key for us is to hold steady and place ourselves under the influence of the Word so that we can remain strong.  Be strong and of good courage.

“Following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked.”  Unknown