Sunday, July 31, 2011

Be firm and steadfast

"No one can withstand you while you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses: I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be firm and steadfast, so that you may give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers I would give them. Above all, be firm and steadfast, taking care to observe the entire law which my servant Moses enjoined on you. Do not swerve from it either to the right or to the left, that you may succeed wherever you go. Keep this book of the law on your lips. Recite it by day and by night, that you may observe carefully all that is written in it; then you will successfully attain your goal. I command you: be firm and steadfast! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD, your God, is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1: 5 - 9)

Like Joshua, we all have our mission on earth.  It may not be as great as the mission entrusted by God to Joshua.  The important thing is that it is our own mission and if we want to succeed in it, the above word of God to Joshua applies too in our own case.  What impresses me in the above powerful message is the number of times Joshua is urged to be “firm and steadfast.”  If you have experienced any major challenge or crisis in your life, you would appreciate the necessity of being firm and steadfast.  You may ask the question, “firm and steadfast about what?”  The answer could be:  Firm and steadfast about your purpose, your trust in God, your trust in the Holy Spirit embedded in you.  Great trial could shake one to the depths of one’s being.  This could leave one uncertain of one’s belief.  Besides, the God we place our trust in is one big Mystery.  “My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are my ways your ways.”  Another way of saying this is “With God everything is possible.”
I have found the above scripture great help in times of need.  This is why it is one of my Promised Land scriptures.

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