No Fear But Courage

[Christsfreeservant]

Joshua 1:7-9

“Only 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. This 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. Have 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.”​

Now, these were God’s specific instructions to Joshua, but we can learn from this, for many similar words as these are repeated for us in the New Testament. In fact, “do not fear,” “do not be afraid,” and “do not fret,” etc. are all throughout the Scriptures. And we have several references to the subject of taking courage in the New Testament, too, so this isn’t specific just to Joshua. We are not to be people of fear but of faith and of courage.

So, when we come up against situations in our lives which try our faith, we are not to be afraid, but we are to be of courage, and we are to trust the Lord. For our Lord never promised us that life would be easy. In fact it talks in the Scriptures of how we are to enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13-14).

So, life as a follower of Jesus Christ is going to have trials and tribulations. And it is going to have persecutions, and people are going to mistreat us, and falsely accuse us of evil, and they will reject us and cast us aside because they just don’t like us, for we do not fit in with their comfort zone. And that is to be expected if we are truly following Jesus with our lives, for that is how they treated him.

Now we are not under the Law of Moses, so we don’t have to obey all those old liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification and dietary laws and restrictions that the Jews of the Old Covenant had to obey. But we are not lawless. We still are commanded to obey our Lord’s commands (New Covenant) which are written down for us in the New Testament. We have to forsake our lives of living in sin to now follow Jesus in obedience to his ways.

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 8:51; Jn 14:15-24; Jn 15:10; Matt 7:21-23; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10,24; 1 Jn 5:2-3; 2 Jn 1:6; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 5:9; 1 Pet 1:1-2; Jas 1:21-25; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Php 2:12-13; Jn 10:27-30; Acts 5:32]

And we should not turn to the right or to the left, but we are to remain on the straight and narrow path that leads to life eternal. We are to remain steadfast in our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord, and we are not to wander off in all sorts of other directions. For if we walk in sin, and not in righteousness and not in obedience to our Lord, the Scriptures teach that we will not enter the kingdom of heaven, but we will die in our sins.

And the Scriptures should not depart from our lips, either. For we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And we are His witnesses, and we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and we are to make disciples of Christ of people, teaching them to obey the Lord’s commands.

[1 Pet. 2:9; 1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 5:13-16; Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Rom. 10:14-15; Jn. 4:31-38; Jn. 13:13-17; Jn. 14:12; 1 Jn. 2:6]

But we are not to give lip service only to obeying our Lord. We are to live the Word of God out in our daily lives and practice, by the grace of God and in his power and strength. For we need to be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves (James 1:22-25). For again, if we do not obey the Lord, but we obey sin, instead, it will end in death, not in life eternal (Romans 6:16). So, we need to take this seriously.

And then there is the reminder to be strong and courageous and to not be frightened in any way, for the Lord our God will be with us wherever we go if we are with him in walks of obedience and surrender to his will. If we are not with God, he is not with us. And to be with him means to be surrendered to following Jesus Christ wherever he leads us and doing all that our Lord commands us that we must do as his disciples.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

The Prayer

Written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager,
Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know

Let this be our prayer
When we lose our way
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe.

I pray we'll find your light
And hold it in our hearts
When the stars go out each night
Remind us where you are.

Let this be our prayer
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe.

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P.S. This is not an endorsement of the singers other than as musicians