Be Strong and Courageous

Note: I don’t usually share raw passages for my journal. This morning I am.

Last night I woke up yet again around 3:30 AM and worried. I didn’t want to but I couldn’t stop. Then I remembered that I had my Bible with me on my Kindle. Took me a few minutes to make the move, and when I did it was hard to keep my eyes open against the light. But I did. And the part I read was the opening of Hebrews: the glory and sovereignty of God and Jesus Christ. I couldn’t read for very long. But you know what? I went right back to sleep after that. I WILL bathe myself in the Word.

This morning I got up thinking “Be strong and courageous.” And when I went over to BibleGateway.com, what verse should be there but this one:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword…? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Rom. 8:35, 37)

And as I read this, I thought well, what if it’s not true? And I immediately snarled and said out loud, “It’s a little too late for that, you stupid jerk. I’m all in.” “Stupid jerk” isn’t me, but demonic powers. THEY are going down.

“Be strong and courageous.” When the Hebrews entered the promised land, they were an army. They were tough, experienced, strong, and there were a lot of them. But Jericho had walls. Mounting an offensive against a walled city is not a matter of direct attack but a protracted siege. You sit, you have supply lines, you may try to do some damage to the walls but the idea is to starve people out of the city. And the Hebrews could’ve done that, and would have if God told them to. But God didn’t go the “normal” way. No. Jericho was going down NOW. So God told them to march. And it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. But they did it anyway, just like God told them to.

And the walls came tumbling down.