Discouragement

Many times Satan attacks the children of God with this powerful weapon -discouragement- and they are defeated again and again. The failures have multiplied. It seems to them that they are condemned to a permanent failure, that it is not worthwhile to go forward, that God has forgotten them. Finally, in many and diverse ways, discouragement comes.

However, God has a message for them. God's words to Joshua are an effective encouragement to a Christian in such a situation. The Lord said to Joshua in the first chapter of his book, over and over again: "Be strong and courageous!" (vers. 6, 9); the same is reiterated by the people to Joshua (v. 18). What is the reason for being strong and courageous? "For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go" (v. 9).

Surely, this is a powerful reason to feel strong and courageous. Jeremiah bore witness to this very thing when he said: "But the Lord is with me as a mighty giant; therefore they that persecute me shall stumble, and shall not prevail; they shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper; they shall have everlasting confusion that shall not be forgotten" (20:11).

Now, in the New Testament, this promise still stands, and with even greater glory. "Be strong in the Lord (lit. be filled with power), and in the power of his might" (Eph. 6:10). There, in the words spoken to Joshua, God promised to be with Joshua (the same with Jeremiah), but here the promise is that the believer will be in the Lord. Not only with the Lord, but in the Lord.

Paul says that our life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). Being in Christ (and hidden in him) is more than a promise: it is a blessed reality. When Satan's weapons are at us, what a faithful comfort it is to know that we are protected in Christ! There we are strong, because his strength is in us; there we are courageous, because his courage abides in us.

We can be strong in him and courageous in him. The Lord's words to Joshua ring firm and encouraging for us today: Be strong and courageous! Because we are in him and he in us, we can be strong and courageous. Because to defeat us, Satan would have to defeat Him first. Because the victory has already been won on the cross, once and for all. For though we are nothing, the Lord is everything in us. If we see this, Satan's deadly weapon -discouragement- will no longer have power over us.

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