Pattern of Strength and Courage

UV 2831/10000 Pattern of Strength and Courage
And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Deuteronomy 31 v 8

In this uni-verse, Moses commissions Joshua to assume his mantle of leadership and to lead the Israelites to the promised land. Things had dramatically changed since the time Abraham dwelt in the land for mighty tribes and nations had developed and occupied the lands en route to Canaan as well as all of the land they hoped to settle in. Yet, the Lord enabled Joshua to defeat 31 powerful kings. The Lord promises to go ahead of us even as He went ahead of Joshua. As it is the Lord who is going before us, we are assured of our security, our prosperity, our success, our victory over any and every type of obstacle we might face on our earthly journey. It is a mark of the humility and faithfulness of the Lord that He goes before His people for normally, it is a herald or a servant that goes before a person to prepare the way ahead of the more important or significant person. At the same time, the Lord promises to be with us wherever we are and wherever we go. His presence and His power accompanies us. He walks beside us and watches our steps. He surrounds us and fences us in all sides not as a prison but as a place where we can be truly free from fears, regrets, disappointments, discouragements. He will enable us to confront and defeat the 31 powerful kings or strongholds of darkness en route to our promised land in the kingdom of God. It is almost as if we are empowered to defeat a different ‘king’ every single day of the month. One day, it could be a stronghold called sickness, another day, temptation, yet another day, conflict at home and on other days, conflict at workplace, one’s fear of mortality, fear of failure, fear of success, hidden conspiracies by rivals and opponents, anger and so on.
This uni-verse is significant as Paul repeats this promise in Hebrews Chapter 13 verse 5 in the context of being content with what we have and not loving money. It implies that there is a temptation for us to replace our faith in God with love of money. People tend to love money as they have a fear that God will leave them and forsake them in a time of trouble or need. Instead, the faith and confidence we have in the Lord should make us think, “As God is with me, what more do I need? He will satisfy all of my need- physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual.” The uni-verse is a guarantee that we need never fear anything, that we should never be discouraged, that we should never be disappointed regardless of what happens. The Lord Himself will encourage us. He will deal with all our fears and insecurities. He will satisfy our needs and fulfil our purpose in life as long we put our whole-hearted trust and complete confidence in Him and in Him alone.

When the Lord is with us, we cannot fail permanently. We will keep learning and improving till we have final victory in Him and through Him. The Lord will not let us fall or fail or flail in weakness as long as we avail of His strength, His grace, His promise of help in all circumstances. He is both Immanuel, the God who dwells with Us and Ebenezer, the One who helps. He will more than fulfil our expectations. Instead of regret and pain, He will fill our hearts with joy. He will never give up on us even when we are back sliding, when we are vacillating and weak. He will never leave us alone or helpless as we cling to Him. He will redeem us in difficult and even impossible situations. He will manifest His presence, power, love, mercy and grace in accordance with His various names that are indicative of the different types of grace we obtain from Him: Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Shalom, Adonai, Lion of Judah, Daystar and so on. IF we believe this amazing uni-verse, we will be imbued with both strength and courage all the days of our lives.

Prateep V Philip