Be Strong
Athane Scholtz is a communication specialist, journalist, author, editor and speaker. She is a regular contributor to blogs and other media, and speaks on issues including personal and corporate communication, womanhood and Bible-based faith. She committed her life to Jesus Christ in 1982 at the age of eight and has been involved in children’s church, youth ministry, course facilitation, as a church volunteer and small group leader. She is currently a second-year Bible School student.
“I love that the principles of Christian faith remain as applicable and effective as it was during Biblical times. My writing and talks are honest about issues of life and Christianity in a modern, broken world and share my thoughts on how the character of God continues to be relevant, even when the answers to our questions aren’t clear.”
She and her two young adult children live in George, South Africa.
BE STRONG
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9
Sometimes I am taken aback by God’s command to be strong in the face of hardship. Shouldn’t a loving Father be a bit more compassionate and gentler when I take a hit? And, it’s not just an instruction in the relatively famous scripture in Joshua 1, but a requirement of godly people throughout the Bible.
In 1 Corinthians 16 Paul is in quite an instructive mood when, slightly randomly comes the command in verse 13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”
In 1 Chronicles 28:20 David is equally stern with his son Solomon who possibly wasn’t taking the temple-building thing seriously enough, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”
In Psalm 27:14 David seems to me talking to himself, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
In Daniel 10:19, the man in Daniel’s vision said, “O man greatly loved fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.”
The nation of Israel is told through Isaiah (41:10), “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
In my life, it was often during hard times that God sent me back to the story of Joshua.
By all indications Joshua was well-mentored by Moses to be a Godly leader, but it is unclear whether that mentorship had included the kind of warfare training that Joshua would need to take possession of the Promised Land.
If Joshua understood the extent of the fight, would he have declined the mentorship all those years before? Did he regret his youthful enthusiasm forty years earlier when he and Caleb had returned from scouting Canaan, brimming with excitement and confidence that the Israelites could conquer the giants in the land?
Looking at the scriptures in Deuteronomy and Joshua, the tone of instruction seems quite stern, maybe because Joshua wasn’t so keen on leadership in battle anymore.
Initially it’s Moses who hands over the reins to Joshua and says, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:7,8)
The next instruction is from God himself, forty days after Moses’ death. In one of the saddest moments of his life, when Joshua might have wanted the sympathy and compassion of a dad, Joshua is at the receiving end of God the parent who can see the bigger picture and knows better.
Joshua is effectively told to get over himself, to face reality and ‘be strong and courageous.’ God even instructs Joshua to not be afraid nor discouraged, which would have been a tall order just considering the trouble the Israelites caused Moses, not to mention the upcoming wars Joshua were meant to lead and in which he had to have known thousands would die.
Including Moses’ instruction, Joshua is told seven times to face reality and to step up to fill the position to which he had been called and appointed. God clearly thought it necessary to repeat the message, not only because of the strong and brave part, I believe, but because of the promise that accompanied it: “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The circumstances requiring our strength and courage will happen no matter our enthusiasm for it. Fortunately, His presence is an interwoven guarantee that will help us through it no matter our attitude. Nonetheless our response matters.
The Bible doesn’t really say if Joshua responded verbally but we know he went in blazing and came out victorious the other side. For years and years and years.
While I prefer to not be strong and courageous for decades to come, like Joshua had to be, I recognise that preparedness is important and that a big task requires proportionate knowledge, skills and insight.
Because let’s be honest, even if we understand that we were called for something greater than ourselves, it is unlikely that we would volunteer to go through tough times for the sake of ‘the plan’. Few of us are such intense adventurers and brave warriors, yet our capacity for strength and courage is surprisingly available when we are stretched.
Which is why God tells us, not asks us.
I only truly understood this principle when I became a parent. Part of being a responsible mom or dad, is teaching our children how to respond to pain and hardship based on our life experience, perspective and understanding of the bigger picture. I also only really grasped an inkling of the frustration God the parent must feel when we, His children, continue to get it wrong despite clear guidelines and instructions.
While I, like most parents, sometimes wonder if I could have been more compassionate or sympathetic for longer in a particular situation, I had always considered it important to encourage resilience. When my children fell and got hurt, were bullied, made a mistake, acted out or lost a friend I would allow for the emotion to be felt and expressed but not for it to become dark. While my opinion or perspective were neither popular nor appreciated by my children at the time, I chose to be tough because I believed that in time, they would understand that I loved them and had their best interests at heart.
So yes, I am preaching to myself. How can I be taken aback at God’s firm instruction when my parenting style is the same? But I think the point is this:
Whether of my own making or not, God is going to be there when (not if) hardship comes. He can see the bigger picture and knows why I should go through it, not around it.
He knows my first reaction might be fear, which is why He warns against it more than any other instruction in the Bible.
God knows I might feel overwhelmed sometimes and feel that I lack capacity, which is why I must understand the difference between feeling discouraged and being it. In the moment, my humanity might get the better of me and that is okay, it just isn’t a space I should lean into for longer than what is good for me.
Sooner rather than later, I must be strong because He gives me strength, courageous because He is always with me, fearless because He will not forsake me.
But, you may have noticed, these profound instructions and promises are linked to expectation of action: David had to conquer nations, Solomon had to build the Temple, Paul was expected to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles and grow the New Testament church, and Joshua … well, he had to action God’s ultimate covenant promise to Abraham. If nothing else, it places my own experiences in perspective.
So, when the immensity, depth and duration of our circumstances start moving in like storm clouds, let us claim and believe the whole of the Joshua 1 promise for ourselves:
STRONG
COURAGEOUS
UNAFRAID
NEVER ALONE.
Amen
