"Be Strong and Courageous"

Lately I have had a string of anxious dreams. Each night I go to bed hoping for peace. Each night I toss and turn as another scenario plays out, a scenario in which bad things are happening and I have no control. I wake up weary. I wake up frustrated.

And I seek to understand why I have so much unfelt anxiety. Is it the world that is getting to me? So many bad things happening at once. So many people hurting, dying, in pain, and so much injustice that I can do nothing about. I can only allow myself so much access to the news. It breaks me.

Perhaps it is the addition of our new programming at the youth center. It could not be going better, but the enemy loves to sneak in fears of failure. The enemy tells me that we are losing kids, that we aren't doing our job, that we are going to fail these kids that need so much.

But I know that it is not true. I know that my prayers for this world are powerful. I know that there is life in the 5 students that have been committed to what we are doing at the youth center. I know that God is moving and powerful and that we are not failing. I know the truth, that we are being faithful and God will take care of the rest.

Funny enough, I have been studying the book of Joshua since we started school here in AZ. I got all the way to the 2nd to last chapter before I realized that the answer to my anxieties had been right in front of me every morning. The battles in front of me seem insurmountable, but did God not remind me in the beginning that He was taking care of it all? Did He not repeat the phrase over and over in my readings? "Be strong and courageous, says the Lord, for I will be with you wherever you go." Be strong and courageous. Be in the Word. Listen to me. Let me do the fighting. Hold fast to Me. Follow my commands. I have already won the war. 

 The answers from my King are clear. He has placed me in leadership. He has given me a task and a people to lead. And I cannot control it, true, but I can be strong, confident, and courageous knowing that He does not lead me into anything alone.

"And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he has sworn to their ancestors; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass." 
Joshua 21:43-45

Amen. 

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