What is going to change our situation? I am not talked about the virus or about the tension around our nation. What I am alluding to is the strain inside of each of us.
Many times I have reminded our church and my e-devotion readers that we, those who follow Jesus, should be thermostats and not thermometers. A thermometer tells the what the temperature is. They literally conformed to whatever they are surrounded by. Whereas a thermostat sets the temperature for the area it is in.
Set the temperature, the mood, the attitude. Set the standard and don’t slide to what is easy, the status quo. Allow your mind and heart to be on a foundation that will see us through the strain and on to victory.
No matter what we see in the news, what we learn about friends or ourselves, we will be strong because of some real truth, not fake news.
Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT
So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
Fear is what keeps us in the prison of stress, in the pain of the situation. Panic arrives when we allow our minds and hearts to be anything but strong. Godly strength and courage is derived from a foundation already set us and not a changing mood around us.
Joshua 1:6-9 NLT
Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
God spoke these things to Joshua. He had seen Moses move through terror and trials, enslavement and harsh treatment, times of victory and times of great battle.
Keep on and don’t turn from what God has told you. Follow what God is doing.
The best way to maintain your strength and to have courage is to internalize the truth God is given. Look at verse 8 in that last passage. Study the book. Meditate on the book. Follow the book.
What difference will that make? It is going to make a huge difference because there you will find success and not defeat, courage and not discouragement, conviction and not confusion, help and not more harm.
God is for us. Be strong and courageous once again today and tomorrow and beyond.
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